Western Civ.
We’ll start with two rhetorical high points from the history of our country. “We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
A few weeks ago, President Trump gave a speech in Poland in which he challenged his listeners to defend Western values. The speech was widely panned. Part of the response was undoubtedly Trump Twitch–he is a vile fascist and anything coming out of his mouth is vile. Some of the rest of the negative response was philosophical. Western values are not worthy of defending; the current mantra is that newly rediscovered commandment that Moses dropped on his way down from the mountain–Thou Shall Value Diversity Above All Else.
When I was a freshman in college, I had to take a course called Western Civilization. Very crudely summarized, it had two strands. Moses to Christ to Constantine to the monks to the Reformation to the Enlightenment to the separation of Church and State. And Athens to the Roman Senate to Tours to the Renaissance to the English Parliament to the Bill of Rights to Emancipation. Serious students were encouraged to join the Great Books movement. A list of 400 or so books that supposedly represented the pinnacle of Western thought. Western Civ. is now a thing of the past. The great books are dismissed as the scribblings of dead white oppressors. We now study other cultures and search for the voices of the oppressed. We don’t use AD (Anno Domino) and BC (Before Christ) any more. It’s BCE (Before Common Era). The birth of Christ is no longer considered a significant turning point in world history.
I am not trying to sanctity Western Civ. Colleges adopted the course during World War I, as a part of Woodrow Wilson’s propaganda campaign to drum up support for our fight with Germany (the Huns–enemies of Western Civilization). Most certainly, there was a scent of elitism in the Great Books movement. I am saying we have a cultural heritage that merits study and the Great Books merit study.
Certainly, the West has made its share of mistakes, and has often failed to live up to its own aspirations. It took a long time and a lot of blood to reach a point where we even acknowledged, at least in theory, that ALL men are created equal. We are still working on all women. Imperialism was an unfortunate detour. However, I would contend that a number of countries on the face of the earth would be better off if the British Colonial Office were still running their civil service and their electoral process.
I would adamantly contend that Western culture is superior in many ways. I do not want to live in a society ruled by Sharia Law. I do not want to live in a society that venerates cows. I do not want to live in a society with an ancient and continuing history of autocracy. I do not want to live in a society that values group rights over individual rights. I do not want to live in a country with an established religion. It is useful to look at our culture with a critical eye. It is worth the effort to work at conforming our behavior to our standards. We might even want to change the standards. Certainly, for example, our attitude toward homosexuality has vastly evolved in my lifetime. Understanding other cultures is a fit study. That should not lead us to conclude that all cultures are equally valuable.
The next time you send off a check to your college endowment, suggest that they bring back Western Civ. The study might deserve a more critical lens, but it is a study worth undertaking.
