https://www.amazon.com/WEIRDest-People-World-Psychologically-Particularly-ebook/dp/B07RZFCPMD
Just finished this book and highly recommend it. The basic premise is the Western Europeans and societies that sprang from that area have a psychology and morality that is very different from the human norm. It goes into great detail about how this happened, how our psychology and societies are different, and how that makes us economically prosperous. The Catholic Church makes a big appearance, as does the Reformation/Counter Reformation.
Probably the biggest shock to me was the entirely different morality that people have in different cultures, and how that morality makes perfect sense in that context. For example, one of the questions was able lying under oath to protect your brother from a manslaughter charge. Pretend you are a passenger in a car, and your brother is driving. He hits a pedestrian and drives away. There are no other witnesses. He gets arrested and asks you to lie about it in court. Western people refuse, because lying is wrong and your brother did hit someone with his car. We stick with universal standards of right and wrong that don't respect individuals. However, in most of the world people would definitely lie for their brother, and they would do it without hesitation. For most of the world, the only thing keeping them safe and secure is their family ties, and family/tribe/clan comes before everything else. In that situation, your brother going to jail weakens your family, and that puts you and the rest of your family in a weaker position. Other families can then attack you taking your land, jobs, and influence. So lying protects all the innocent members of your family. The whole idea really blew my mind.
The book gets technical at times, at least a technical as sociology and psychology gets. But it is well thought and certainly thought provoking.
Just finished this book and highly recommend it. The basic premise is the Western Europeans and societies that sprang from that area have a psychology and morality that is very different from the human norm. It goes into great detail about how this happened, how our psychology and societies are different, and how that makes us economically prosperous. The Catholic Church makes a big appearance, as does the Reformation/Counter Reformation.
Probably the biggest shock to me was the entirely different morality that people have in different cultures, and how that morality makes perfect sense in that context. For example, one of the questions was able lying under oath to protect your brother from a manslaughter charge. Pretend you are a passenger in a car, and your brother is driving. He hits a pedestrian and drives away. There are no other witnesses. He gets arrested and asks you to lie about it in court. Western people refuse, because lying is wrong and your brother did hit someone with his car. We stick with universal standards of right and wrong that don't respect individuals. However, in most of the world people would definitely lie for their brother, and they would do it without hesitation. For most of the world, the only thing keeping them safe and secure is their family ties, and family/tribe/clan comes before everything else. In that situation, your brother going to jail weakens your family, and that puts you and the rest of your family in a weaker position. Other families can then attack you taking your land, jobs, and influence. So lying protects all the innocent members of your family. The whole idea really blew my mind.
The book gets technical at times, at least a technical as sociology and psychology gets. But it is well thought and certainly thought provoking.
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