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Notes -
Not-so-small scale question but this is probably the only place I can get an informed answer on this not constrained by political correctness: what’s your overarching theory of why Western Europe and its descendants are the world’s most influential civilization of the past few centuries?
My working theory is basically a mirrior of my theory of how Christainity managed to spread so widely. As several users here are fond of pointing out Christianity (and to a lesser extent the other Abrahamic religions) are stupid, irrational, seem to actively harm it's adherents evolutionary prospects, and poorly optimized for memetic spread. By all rights and contemporary social theories Christianity it should never have outlived it's founder, never mind conquer Europe.
The answer I think is in what Christianity as an ideology/memeplex was "optimized for" and that was for fostering cooperation and trust in dangerous low-trust environments. As a result Christian communities held together where others succumbed to crab-bucketing and chronic-backstabbing-disorder, Christian armies stood their ground where others fled. And this tendency can be expanded to the wider "Western World" as until relatively recently "the western world" and the "Christian world" were practically synonymous.
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