The
West and the rest
Guest Columnist
By GEORGE WEIGEL
In his book, “Without Roots,” Pope Benedict XVI deplored the
addiction to historical self-deprecation rampant at the higher altitudes
of European cultural and intellectual life: a tendency to see in the history
of the West only “the despicable and the destructive.” The
same problem exists on this side of the Atlantic; in our universities
and among our cultural taste-makers, the healthy Western habit of moral,
cultural, and political self-critique can dissipate into forms of self-loathing.
So, a question: What’s right about the West, about this unique civilizational
enterprise formed by the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and
Rome — Biblical religion, rationality, and the idea of a law-governed
polity?
1) Openness. Thanks to its belief in the power of reason, and its commitment
to a search for truth unconstrained by political power, taboo, or the
whims of false gods, the West has evolved the most open civilization in
human history. As British philosopher Roger Scruton neatly put it, life
in the West is an open book; it’s too often a closed ledger elsewhere.
2) Freedom. Over many centuries, the West thought its way through to the
idea of the inalienable dignity and worth of every human life. That commitment
to the dignity of the individual gave birth, in turn, to Western ideas
of freedom — freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom’s
defense as the primary function of government. The world now swears allegiance
to the idea of human rights; that idea was born in the West. So was the
idea that slavery — an ancient human institution — is an abomination.
So was the idea that women enjoy full political and legal equality with
men.
3) Knowledge: The Bible gave the West the idea of a God who imprinted
his reason onto His creation; the Greeks gave the West the idea of the
unflinching quest for truth. Put the two together and you get other great
Western inventions: universities, libraries, research institutes, and
schools open to all. The West’s thirst for knowledge, coupled with
its commitment to openness and freedom of discussion, produced the scientific
method and the scientific revolution; thus virtually every major invention
of the past half-millennium has come from the West. If we live longer,
healthier, less painful lives today than human beings did a thousand years
ago, we can thank the West’s scientific and technological creativity,
which is a function of western culture.
4) Generosity. In addition to ending the slave trade, abolishing slavery,
and enfranchising women, the West has produced virtually every major humanitarian
initiative in modern history, from the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders,
from the green revolution to the eradication of river blindness, from
care for the mentally and physically handicapped to the abrogation of
forced marriage. The modern human rights movement has taken root in many
cultures, but it is motored primarily by the West — which is also
the source of the overwhelming proportion of development aid for the world’s
poor.
5) Beauty. Many cultures produce beautiful things; only the West has produced
Mozart, Bach, Michelangelo, Dante, Rembrandt and Shakespeare. Absent a
humanistic culture, you’re just not going to find the intensity
of human grandeur and human weakness found, for example, in a Caravaggio
painting or a Bernini sculpture.
6) Humor. The West is singularly capable of making fun of itself —
sometimes, to be sure, in vulgar ways. Still, that impulse to mock pretension
and false piety, to cut the mighty down to size with a joke, is a sound
one. Humor keeps things open, keeps things human, and nurtures in the
West a capacity for healthy self-criticism.
That the world’s migration patterns tend to work in one direction
— from the rest to the West — is not an accident. Six reasons
why have been noted here; more could be added.
So — have you said something nice about your civilization today?
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center
in Washington, D.C.