But as with everything else which these elements of the left and
their allies in the media push, this is simply false. While the overlap
between white people – that is, people of European descent and some
Christian populations in the Caucasus
– and Western culture is undeniable, it is likewise undeniable that
Western culture is no longer the exclusive domain of whites. What we can
call, without the slightest bit of stretching the truth, Western
culture is present not just in Western Europe, North America and Australia, but also in former British colonies such as Israel, Singapore and Hong Kong.
What’s more, a country simply being part of Europe does not make it
“Western” in any meaningful sense. While there is a certain Western
cultural continuum based around Christianity that extends from Lisbon to Vladivostok, it would be overly simplistic (and indeed, a bit demeaning) to label the post-Soviet countries as “Western.” They have a similar set of cultural values rooted in Christianity, however, even the introduction of democracy
has not made many post-Soviet and post-colonial nations more liberal in
the true sense of the word – open markets, an emphasis on free speech,
strong private property rights, an independent, impartial judiciary, and
the primacy of the individual over that of the group.
Throughout this article we will provide some terms to define what we
mean by “Western culture.” We will also make the case that Western
cultural values have a universal aspect in the sense that they can be
applied with success anywhere in the world, that these values are
objectively superior to other value sets at maximizing human freedom, quality of life,
and potential, and that the belief in this superiority has nothing to
do with “racism” in the sense that it is commonly understood by ordinary
people.
One demonstration of the proof that these values are objectively
superior is that "people vote with their feet", as Dr. Jordan Peterson points out:
"The fundamental assumptions of Western civilization are valid. Here's
how you know: Which countries do people want to move away from? Not
ours. Which countries do people want to move to? Ours! Guess what, they
work better. And it's not because we went around the world stealing
everything we could get our hands on. It's because we got certain
fundamental assumptions right - and thank God for that."
What Are Western Values?
Before going any further, it is necessary to define what we mean by
“Western values.” Indeed, what we mean by this is very specific and has a
basis not in the West at large, but specifically in Anglo-Saxon culture.
Virtually all of the values that we will identify in this article as
being “Western” are perhaps more accurately termed “Anglo-Saxon values.”
However, as the former term is more concise, succinct and in greater
general use, we will use “Western values” throughout this article.
So what are these values? What is their origin? Where do they come from?
Again, it is our belief that what we call “Western values” are rooted
firmly in the Anglo-Saxon tradition above all else. The formalization
of these values can be found in the Magna Carta,
but this simply codifies values that had been practiced in long
standing in post-Anglo-Saxon Britain and likely long before it in some
sense, going back to the days when the Angles and Saxons roamed the
border regions between what is now Germany and Denmark.
While the Magna Carta is a complicated document, for our purposes it
means something succinct and simple: it means that the king is not above
the law.
There are a number of principles that flow from this general
recognition that form the bedrock of Western civilization: Legal norms
apply to everyone regardless of social class. The right to a fair trial
by a jury of one’s peers and the right to face one’s accuser in open
court. The right to one’s own property and the right to defend that
property using deadly force. While these rights have all been hemmed in – in extreme ways in some cases, particularly since the events of September 11, 2001 – the point is that they form the bedrock of our legal structure and value culture in the West.
To boil this down to a single sentence: the West believes that men have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
and that these rights can only be deprived through due process of law.
Both national constitutions and prevailing moral attitudes prevent angry
mobs or powerful oligarchs from systematically depriving unpopular and
powerless minorities of their rights.
Are Western Values Universal?
Western values are not universal in the sense that they will
eventually be arrived upon by all cultures given enough time. They are
not, contra Francis Fukuyama, an endpoint of history, a teleological
goal post that all of humanity has been moving toward for its entire
existence. It comes out of a very specific lineage, the Anglo-Saxon
culture of yeoman farmers, freeholding lords, restive barons and, more
than anything else, a total rejection of the notion of authoritarian
kings who could rule at their whim without, at the very least, the
consent of the men providing armed bodies for their war efforts and
paying the lion’s share of taxes.
But perhaps Western values are universal in another, different
respect. Consider what we said earlier: These values are by no means
limited to the Anglosphere, though they do seem to be strongest
in former British colonies – North America, Australia, Israel,
Singapore, Hong Kong. These values manifest in different ways in each of
these places and it would be more than a little odd if they didn’t.
Property Rights
However, the basic notion that there are a set of legal norms applying to everyone and, perhaps more importantly, that property rights are as important as other rights such as free speech,
seem to have a universality about them. By this we mean that everywhere
they have been put into practice, they have yielded impressive results
in allowing human society to reach a greater potential while also
providing better results for greater numbers of people.
Why does this matter? Well, Communist nations have historically
raised living standards dramatically. Compare Russia during the waning
days of the Romanovs to the Soviet Union in the 50s, 60s and 70s, or
China today to China 70 years ago. But this is only impressive if you
ignore the failure of Communism with regard to the rights of the
individual and the rather sterile record of Communists with regard to
innovation and invention. Sure, the Soviets beat America in the space
race by putting a few dogs and satellites in the air – and then promptly
did nothing else. Similarly, China is known far more for stealing
Western intellectual property than it is for innovating its own.
Quality of Life
Innovation is necessary for both maintaining quality of life for
large and growing populations, and for increasing quality of life.
Again, China presents an important test case in what happens in a
growing economy without transparency, an emphasis on the rights of the
individual and the freedom to innovate that comes with an open, liberal
economy: China’s one-child policy, which has been demographically
disastrous beyond the humanitarian considerations, as well as its
environmental degradation are both symptoms of a society that has become
aggressively anti-liberal, stifling innovation.
Indeed, the results are plain to see: Of the ten countries in the world with the best quality of life,
three of them are former British colonies – Canada came in at number
one, Australia and New Zealand. One was in personal union with Britain
(the Netherlands), four are Nordic countries with a similar emphasis on
the rights of the individual and due process (Sweden, Denmark, Norway
and Finland), and one is arguably the country in the world with a value
system most closely resembling that of the Anglo-Saxons (Switzerland).
Former British colony Singapore comes in at number 20, behind only Japan
and China (which includes Hong Kong – and we wonder how much lifting
that former British Crown Colony is doing for the People’s Republic) in
Asia. Malaysia and India, both former British colonies, come in the top
30, beating out even a number of European countries outside of what we
have defined as “the West,” such as Russia, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Quality of life is an important metric because it includes
non-material and non-economic factors. How subjectively happy are
people? Are they satisfied with their lives or are they simply awash in
money? Do they want to have children? Are they invested in society
through mechanisms such as home ownership? All of these questions will
yield a far more accurate picture of a country’s quality of life than
simply looking at their GDP or per capita income.
Nobel Laureates
There are other ways of demonstrating the kind of cultural
superiority that we are talking about. One of these is by looking at the
countries who have produced the most Nobel Laureates:
Despite the prize being of Norwegian extraction, two Anglosphere
countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, absolutely dominate
the rest of the world with regard to winning Nobel prizes: Of the 866
individuals who have received Nobel prizes as of 2020, 516 of them
(nearly 60 percent) have been from these two countries.
All five of the top five slots are occupied by Western nations, with
these five countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany,
France and Sweden) making up a whopping 83 percent of all recipients.
Within the top ten, we see an additional three Western countries
(Switzerland, Canada and Austria) and the share of Western countries in
the top ten expands to fully 92 percent of all Nobel prize recipients.
This achievement is so lopsided that it must be discussed by anyone seriously considering this topic.
Technological Achievements
Technological achievements are difficult to quantify. What one
considers to be an important technological achievement might be rejected
by another as insignificant. However, this list created by The Atlantic
is not a terrible representation of the most important technological
achievements since the invention of the wheel. While nearly all of these
were invented somewhere on the continent of Europe, what is more
striking and important is how many of them were created in the West
in the way that we have defined it – i.e., those cultures most
embracing the values summarized in the Magna Carta and its
extrapolations.
Corruption and Transparency
Finally, there is the matter of corruption and transparency in
government. The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 different nations
around the world in terms of transparency, accountability, general
fairness and other important factors. Of the top ten countries for 2019,
nine are in Europe. The one that is not is the former British colony of
Singapore, a country that is light on democracy but heavy on freedom,
transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Former British crown
colony Hong Kong – thankfully ranked separately from the People’s
Republic of China – comes in at number 16, ahead of Japan, Ireland and
Belgium. Indeed, the two Asian former British colonies come out ahead of
the United States according to the terms established by the Corruption Perceptions Index.
One of the reasons for America’s low rank among Western countries is
because Americans often watch in disbelief as top government officials
leave public service and cash in on their expertise in the private
sector, regardless of the crimes they committed while in office –
whereas in a place like Sweden, when a politician is caught violating
the public’s trust for even minor infractions like drunk driving, they immediately resign. Consider how Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are fugitives facing charges while General David Petraeus
(who provided his illicit lover and favorable biographer information so
secret it defied classification, including the names of covert
operatives and the president’s private thoughts on matters of strategic
concern), former director of the NSA General Keith Alexander (who lied under oath to Congress and the courts about the NSA spying on U.S. citizens), and former CIA Director James Clapper
(who also lied under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee in order
protect his agency from oversight) all breathe free air.
Are Western Values Superior to Other Value Systems?
Whether
or not Western values are “superior” to other value systems is entirely
reliant upon what one considers to be the ideal results for a society.
Honest and good people have disagreements on this topic. However, we
believe that in the West, there is a general, broad agreement on what
constitutes a “good” result for society best summed up by two
principles: freedom and fairness.
Freedom and fairness are, in fact, two ideas that are in tension with
one another because they are often mutually contradictory. What makes
one man free might be unfair in a meaningful sense to another. Indeed,
the left-right spectrum in the United States and the Anglosphere might
be described as the Party of Freedom (for example, the Republicans)
versus the Party of Fairness (in this case, the Democrats).
Both of these values are important to everyone to varying degrees.
The resolution of this tension – drawing the line at some point between
fairness and freedom – is effectively what our entire civilization is
about. It is about maximizing results for the greatest number of people,
creating a society that is as fair as it can possibly be while
minimally infringing on the rights of individuals.
In a word, Western values can be described as “liberalism” in the sense that John Stuart Mill and John Locke
would have understood the term. While there are coherent and important
arguments about the limitations of liberalism on both the left and the
right, both sides of the political spectrum have thus far failed to
offer an alternative to classical liberalism that provides the same
degree of generalized prosperity and individual liberty that Western
civilization has provided using classical liberalism as its de facto political ideology.
If one believes that freedom and fairness are not important, this
doesn’t mean much. However, most Americans and most Westerners believe,
whether they are aware of this specific description or not, that freedom
and fairness are important and perhaps the most important values that a society can aspire to.
What’s more, we believe that these values are directly responsible
for the material prosperity and plenty that characterizes these
societies. Individuals are able to pursue happiness in their own way
and, for the most part, retain the fruits of their labor. This creates
motivation for innovations that raise the standard of living across the
board, from top to bottom.
Is It Racist To View Western Values As Superior?
When the superiority of Western values is touted, the retort is often
that prizing these values above all others – indeed, recognizing them
as “superior” in some way – constitutes “racism.” We believe this is not
an unreasonable response to the claims that we are making and that it
requires specific attention. Ultimately, however, we find that the
argument that Western cultural superiority is racist to be lacking.
Before we go any further, we wish to clarify that we will only use
the terms “racist” and “racism” in the sense that they are commonly
understood by the average person: racially motivated hatred, domination
and subjugation. We will not use the Marxist-influenced definition,
which effectively defines entire groups of people as “racist” regardless of their views, actions or motivations.
We have already discussed above that there are a number of countries
that have adopted Western cultural values outside of Europe. This is not
an insignificant point when it comes to defending the viewpoint of
Western cultural superiority against racism.
There is also the small matter of generalized racial, ethnic and
religious tolerance that characterizes the West. Western nations have,
on average, the greatest degree of tolerance and pluralism in the world.
Much of our public discourse in the West is about how to best balance
tolerance with the above mentioned principles of fairness and freedom.
Western nations often include in the upper echelons of their
academic, cultural, economic and political structures, prominent members
who are of non-European extraction, either the descendents of African
slaves or more recent immigrants from other parts of the world. This is
not to be hand-waved away – can, for example, Arab nations boast of
black politicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs? Is there a similar
phenomenon of Asian achievement within the African cultural sphere? Put
simply, there is no equivalent to the social mobility that Western
nations offer diasporic, immigrant and formerly enslaved populations
anywhere else in the world. This speaks to the universal quality that we
mentioned previously – Western values do not advantage or disadvantage
any specific group.
We would also be remiss if we did not recognize the institution of
chattel slavery and the degree to which it has largely been ended in the
West – and indeed, throughout the world, thanks to the efforts of
Western nations. Chattel slavery is flagrantly incompatible with Western
cultural values, which is why it has largely been eradicated in the
West and its former colonies. It’s largely a legal non sequitur
throughout the world today. And while there are forms of bonded and
unfree labor, they are aberrant and concentrated in areas where Western
influence is at its weakest. Enslaving another human being is generally
seen as the worst crime a person can commit, dwarfing even rape and
murder in its magnitude, being in roughly the same category as war
crimes and genocide.
The role of slavery in the West is a complicated one, but it is worth
noting that while Western nations did not invent slavery, an
institution as old as recorded history at the very least, they have done
more than anyone else to end it. The British Empire abolished slavery throughout the empire in 1833.
The United States fought one of the bloodiest wars in human history to
end bonded labor within its borders. Each of these together acted as a
one-two punch that effectively ended slavery in the West. Where slavery
persisted in Europe, it did so largely under the auspices of the Islamic
Ottoman Empire and the Orthodox Russian Empire.
Finally, a significant portion of Western discourse in the
intervening years has been about how to increase participation,
toleration and pluralism throughout Western societies. Greater and
greater inclusion is a hallmark of Western civilization as part of its
generalized emphasis on freedom and fairness. None of this is
representative of Western civilization being “racist,” thus prioritizing
the values of Western civilization above that of other cultures is not
racist.
What of Multiculturalism?
“Multiculturalism”
is one of those words that is often bandied about with very little
thought as to what it actually means. Being a multiculturalist does not
mean that one finds something of value in other cultures. It means that
one considers all cultures to be of equal merit and that cultural values
and practices become beyond reproach simply because they are cultural
practices.
Like many things that the left pushes, multiculturalism is not a good
faith position. No one, for example, argues in earnest from a position
of multiculturalism that Confederate monuments ought to remain standing
because they are a part of Southern culture. Indeed, those most loudly
touting the multiculturalist line are those least respectful of the
cultural norms and mores of Appalachia, South Boston or Deer Lodge,
Montana. Multiculturalists are quite vocal about their distaste for the
cultural practices of unwoke whites, and this distaste is by no means limited to outbursts of violent racism. See, for example, the current cultural jihad against debutante balls in the American South.
What’s more, the multicultural appreciation of other cultures tends
to be very shallow and performative. The affluent and educated like to
“travel,” but largely spend their time cooped up on resorts or at pubs
and restaurants catering to tourists such as themselves. One can
scarcely get ten seconds into a conversation about immigration without
hearing a multiculturalist moan about who will make our tacos. Much
rarer is the person who speaks Arabic, has read Proust in the original
French, or has spent a summer living with a Cuban family in Havana. The
average multiculturalist generally doesn’t even know the capital of
Zimbabwe or the chief export of Vietnam.
There is certainly much to appreciate about and learn from other
cultures, but the same types of people touting multiculturalism are
generally opposed to this, lambasting it as “cultural appropriation.”
Whites, we are told, are not allowed to have dreadlocks or wear hoop earrings.
No word on whether or not non-whites are allowed to get vaccines or fly
in airplanes, but we do see a growing consensus among the left that “there’s no such thing as white culture.”
Multiculturalism must be understood for what it really is: it is a
form of weaponizing the Western sense of “live and let live” and fair
play for the purpose of subverting and attacking that culture. One
manifestation of this phenomenon is the No Go Zone,
a place where law and order has broken down and the area is effectively
governed by parallel powers openly hostile toward Western cultural
norms.
No Go Zones happen because those in power don’t believe in the
primacy of Western cultural values, and don’t want to insist on those
values being “imposed” on newly arrived immigrants from other cultures.
They selectively celebrate multiculturalism in their own country, even
when those cultures are acting in ways they find abhorrent in their home
town.
Against Western Cultural Cringe
So what does all of this add up to? A call for pride in the West?
Not necessarily. But consider the inversion of pride – shame and
guilt. White guilt is a popular sentiment in the United States and the
West, whereby one is supposed to feel directly responsible for any
crimes committed by or in the name of Western civilization. This is a
patently absurd view. If one is responsible, for example, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, then one is equally responsible for vaccines, toilets and antibiotics.
What we would call for rather than Western cultural chauvinism is,
instead, a call for Westerners to end their cultural cringe against
Western values.
Cultural cringe
is where one feels embarrassed or uncomfortable about their culture,
seeing it as somehow “less than” others or emphasizing its shortcomings
over its achievements. The West as a whole seems to be suffering from
widespread cultural cringe, though it is worth noting that this
sentiment is largely inorganic. Rather than being a natural outgrowth of
prevailing cultural attitudes, it’s instead manufactured by the media
and academia, which incessantly propagandize about the evils of white
men, the nuclear family, Christianity and Western values.
The assault on our cultural institutions is largely successful
because of historical illiteracy. While many Americans are embarrassed
about America’s slaveholding past, few know how limited slave ownership was throughout the country,
the degree to which it was opposed while it still existed, and barely
think about how slavery is an institution extending all the way back to
the dawn of human history, and is thus not a uniquely American invention.
America simply did what the rest of the world did at the time and what
virtually all of the world had done since the beginning of time.
Lacking a proper historical context, it’s easy to convince anyone of anything.
One need not become a braggart about Western culture to combat this.
Indeed, doing so might well be counterproductive. However, one certainly
should refuse to feel guilt about the color of one’s skin or the
broader values of Western civilization. It is important to remember that
the people who seek to weaponize guilt
about historical crimes of the West – which are certainly a matter of
historical record, but by no means exclusive or unique to the West and,
as we have pointed out above, have been aggressively combated by the
West more than anyone else – do so out of a position of bad faith. They
are not seeking to make the world a better place or reflect thoughtfully
on the sum total of the West’s history. They simply seek to weaponize your guilt for their own personal political gain.
It is the West’s insistence on equal treatment and fair play that
makes this so easy for anti-Western leftists. Because, as a culture, we
strive to make men equal before the law, it is easy for us to be guilted
and shamed when we fail to live up to our values. Leftists do two
things when they attack Western culture: First, they say that because we
have not always lived up to our stated values, that we have failed as a
society. But then they commit a rhetorical sleight of hand, declaring
that because of this, our values must be bad, then attempting to
substitute a radical, alien and totalitarian set of values in their
place – the values of radical equality and social leveling.
This is the most important part to remember: virtually none of the
people demanding that you hate yourself and your culture’s values have
anything better to offer in its place. Replacing cultural cringe with an
honest cultural confidence does not require looking down on other
cultures. It simply requires you to acknowledge that, when compared to
all of human history, the West has done a great job of increasing human
freedom and human prosperity, as well as encouraging an overall sense of
fair play.
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