Ranking Cultures by Rationality

post by Gadersd · 2022-01-27T02:25:10.690Z · LW · GW · No comments

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    6 rosyatrandom
    -1 Sarrazinc
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I have been interested in different cultures for a while, probably because I find so many deficiencies in my own culture. Which countries/cultures do you find to be generally the most rationally based? Japan and Sweden especially seem to have quite a secular populace mostly immune to silly ideologies and superstition. Hong Kong also seems to be a place of practically minded people who do not put much stock into religion. I cannot recall any specific data on these places other than a general lack of religion. What other measures would be useful for ranking countries by rationality?

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answer by rosyatrandom · 2022-01-27T14:37:53.359Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Japan can be incredibly inflexible, rigid, and inconsistent with the rules and expectations they follow. There is also a great deal of respect/homage paid to Buddhism and Daoism.

In short, I really don't think rationality is by any means a linear metric, and you certainly couldn't use it as a value-measure of how 'good' a society is.

↑ comment by ChristianKl · 2022-01-27T17:08:46.176Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

The Japanese also managed to invent new superstitions like the one around the meaning of human blood groups that we in the West didn't. (they have similar stereotypes then about people's astrological signs)

↑ comment by Randomized, Controlled (BossSleepy) · 2022-01-27T15:18:39.006Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Also, before and during WW2, Japan had the most shockingly horrifying death-cult-y style leadership and culture. Dan Carlin does a good job sketching this in his Supernova in the East series.

answer by Sarrazinc · 2022-01-31T20:38:02.876Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Question :1 est ce que l homme ne perd il pas en en humanité lorsque sa rationalité devient trop forte? N est il pas de sa propre nature d être un minimum irrationnel ?

↑ comment by RHollerith (rhollerith_dot_com) · 2022-02-03T20:52:19.162Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Downvoted because I believe that comments to www.lesswrong.com should be intelligible by English speakers. (I would however support the creation of a fr.lesswrong.com and the renaming of www.lesswrong.com to en.lesswrong.com.)

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