|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Western Civilization: Achievements and Prospects
| Article
# : |
19852 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1991 |
8,024 Words |
| Author
: |
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and a
nationally syndicated columnist. |
There are many reasons to enumerate and reflect upon the achievements of Western civilization, other than a parochial vanity. For several centuries now, Western civilization has been the dominant civilization on this planet, so that its fate is intertwined with the fate of human beings around the world, whether they live in Western or non-Western societies. The products of Western civilization, from the sophisticated technology of air travel to various flavors of carbonated drinks, can be found in the most remote and non-Western regions of the world. More important, the ideas and ideals of Western civilization are in the minds and hearts of people of non-Western races with non-Western traditions. Perhaps the most dramatic examples were the throngs of Chinese people who risked their lives in Tiananmen Square for Western concepts of freedom and democracy.
Unfortunately, even to speak of the achievements of Western civilization goes against the grain of the intellectual fashions of our time. Both Western and non-Western intellectuals tend to judge and condemn the West, not by comparison with the achievements and shortcomings of alternative cultures and traditions, but by comparison with standards of perfection which all things human must inevitably fail. Such attitudes of sweeping, corrosive, and incessant condemnation from within are among the principal dangers to the survival of Western civilization.
Western Civilization as Global Civilization
Western civilization today no longer means simply the civilization of Europe, where it originated. Transplants of this civilization in the Western Hemisphere, Australia, and New Zealand are among its most vigorous elements, and its leadership and survival in a nuclear age depend crucially on the United States of America. The cultural penumbra of Western civilization reaches even farther. Its science and technology are today also the science and technology of Japan. Its languages span the globe and provide a common medium of communication among peoples whose respective mother tongues are incomprehensible to one another. Pilots speak to control towers in English around the world, even if they are Japanese pilots speaking to an Egyptian control tower. English is spoken by a billion people of all races--more people than speak any other language.
Much of the global sweep of Western civilization today, as its critics are quick to point out, is a product of conquest over the past five centuries and of the enslavement of millions of human beings torn from their homelands. Tragically, the
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
