A brief survey of whether or not we’re better off with white men in charge…
Now, let’s start logically. By “White Men,” I’m pretty sure they mean men living in Northern Europe, meaning Scandinavia, England, Germany, France, and possibly Italy and Greece. Not sure about Spain.
So. Let’s start with the beginning. Ancient Sumeria. (I’m talking about history that is written down.) They actually began civilization, and great things like agriculture (I like eating, I really do) but they don’t actually meet the qualification of “White men.” I don’t even know who was living in Sweden at the time. This area started things like writing, and the potter’s wheel, two things I am fond of.
Not sure how to score this, because it’s the Sumerians against I don’t know what. On the other hand, nobody was writing anything down in Sweden at the time, so Score 1 Sumerians.
Next we travel to Ancient Egypt, which was a nice place to be pharaoh. Not so nice to be a peasant or a slave. However, they did build some great stuff, had math and medicine, and wrote stuff down. Still nobody writing anything down in what is now Germany. Also, the Egyptians were so incredibly cool that Ancient Egypt still gets to star in a lot of films and video games. (Look, if I had a choice between a stone age shaman and an ancient Egyptian doctor, I’d choose the doctor. But only if I were too sick to take care it myself.)
Score Non-white men 2, White men: 0*
*Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Nefertari pushes the score to a half-point for women.
Leaving Egypt, let’s examine the Greeks ca. 800-300 BC. While the first Germanic tribes are wearing fur pelts and bashing each other with clubs, the Greeks were contemplating the nature of life, the universe, geometry, and medicine. They wrote epic pieces of literature like the Iliad and the Odyssey and invented drama. They had actual historians who analyzed things. And, for that matter, I would still rather be governed by Cincinnatus than any current presidential candidate.
Problem, though: Are they white? Most White Supremacists consider them Not Actually White*, but they do live on the European continent.
*Being as White Supremacists are silly
Draw.
Next, the Romans: Good at governing large areas efficiently. Good at having enough sense to not wipe out the Greeks, just co-opt their stuff. And, they invaded the Germans and Celts, who had started writing with Runes. Runes, while being used as a plot point in lots of stories and video games, do not actually have any mystical powers.
Europeans invading and bringing better government to Europeans. Draw.
In the meantime, the Chinese had a highly sophisticated governmental system, inventing such fun stuff as fireworks, paper, noodles, and earthquake detectors. Oh, and silk. And compasses.
Score 1 more for the non-Europeans. It was still a very aristocratic system, but everywhere was aristocratic back then.
Oh, yeah, and about this time the Mayans were making up a calendar. Heh. Oh, yeah, and zero. You watched Stand and Deliver; you know this.
From about 0 BC to the Renaissance, Europeans managed to organize their “bashing each other on the head” system to make it more efficient. They got a hold of that paper and that gunpowder, and used both. They acquired a pope to tell them what to do, and Christianity, which at least did not require ritual human sacrifice. They had the bright idea of the Crusades, because they needed to find new ways for peasants to die. William the Conqueror invades England. They founded the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The Knights Templar exists briefly in reality, and forever in the mind of Conspiracy Theorists. The Magna Carta is signed, in which a king has to acknowledge that he is not all powerful.
The Muslims, during this time, are building libraries and developing science and medicine and trading with China. Trust me: Between an Islamic medieval doctor and a European medieval doctor, go with the Muslim.
Of course, you would search in vain for real democratic government, but that was everywhere.
The Renaissance: Score one for Europe. Sorry, but Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci rock.
The era of Exploration: Good time to be a European. Not so good to be a Native American. Smallpox, for one. On the other hand, you were better off being a European in America than a European in Europe, at least after the first couple hundred years.
Yes, the Founding Fathers were geniuses. If they did not extend rights to those who did not have them, they set up the system that eventually would. Also William Willberforce was brilliant.
Europeans had some great scientists and thinkers during this time. Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, Adam Smith, Voltaire, etc. etc. etc.
Colonialism, on the other hand, was not so good. I’m not keen on the idea of viewing human beings as something expendable to be used to enrich yourself. Also, they messed up on drawing the borders.
Modern era: Whew. No, I’m not going to write it all out. The advent of the technological world and the industrial revolution. Modern medicine (yeah!). The wars, .
My summary: Most civilizations blossomed for a time. The European was later than others. However, to be a European under the Europeans was okay, but to be a non-European under the Europeans generally wasn’t great. In other words, White Supremacy worked for the Whites.
Should stable representative government exist in the whole world? Well, yeah, but having Europeans take over is not representative government.