"The west" learnt diddly squat, but even if we assume "we" did -- the most significant turn-point of Western history in the last 150 years was the Holocaust. Are we saying any ethnic conflict on the planet will have to go through a holocaust before anyone "learns"?
> Thats why India has Gandhi
... and still discriminates and kills Muslims on a massive scale, even after partition.
> South Africa has Mandela
... and is now all but enacting white-discrimination in public institutions.
My point is that the concept of history as a progression of "lessons" is optimistic at best, and if we don't keep pushing at all times, things can revert to shit pretty quickly. UK news this week were a sober reminder that we are not all as civilized as we pretend to be.
As an Indian, I'm shocked to hear this. Did you ever live in India? "Massive scale", my ass. At least India didn't wipe out its population in a "Cultural Revolution"... Do you want to talk about Falun Gong? The harvesting of organs from FG prisoners?
Firstly - China doesn't have a great human rights record right now. They have an excellent economy.
The earlier communists themselves have one of the worst human rights records.
And you don't "convince" anybody. You let them choose for themselves. Without that part - without being able to choose a bad choice, people can't learn from those mistakes.
You think the west learnt from someone else? People learn from their history and their context.
Remove that from them and well - you remove their ability to have their own identity and history.
Rights can only be understood by the masses after they have examples, leaders, or history which they can translate/relate to.
Thats why India has Gandhi, South Africa has Mandela.
Its very obvious whats happening here, civilization is being brought to the savages.