“And so just as the men of resentment talk about justice while meaning revenge, so it is that something is disguised within their talk of equality. For anyone who talks of “equality” will find an inbuilt problem. Only a person who “fears he will lose” will demand equality as a “universal principle”. – The War on the West
While the Old World selected their leaders by birth and well-breeding, “The West” went for a natural aristocracy born of talent and virtue, believing that citizens with skin in the game were necessary for the success of a free society. Following the doctrines of the Magna Carta, a groundbreaking charter and symbol of freedom and the protection of rights in England, the American Founders and colonists crafted their own Constitution. The ensuing defense of individual rights, religious freedom, and the limiting of government that followed, served as a foundational feature of “The West”. Now, after centuries of imitation, these long-cherished liberties have become a target for extinction.
What qualifies as “The West” can be defined in many ways. Geographically, “The West”, encompasses the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Occasionally the definition is expanded to include Latin America: Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Politically, “The West” can be characterized by its democracy, human rights, and representative government. What served so many centuries as the best the world had to offer, is now being condemned as white, wealthy, Christian, and capitalist.
In Douglas Murray’s 2022 book, “The War on the West”, Murray provides a brief history of what made “The West” significant, and why it is now the target of scorn. For starters, today’s standards are being applied to past actions, a comparison no system could withstand. As such, all things “West” are being equated with whiteness, and anything that evolved from it is being tagged for revision. Indeed, every tenet of Western culture is slowly being eroded by the institutions controlled by the media, education, the arts, and even the US government itself. Murray examines the ongoing anti-West battle through the lens of race, history, religion, and culture as he laments how we may lose the war if we passively stand by and watch.
“The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination” is a vicious racist cycle advocated by woke academic Ibram X. Kendi. This new anti-racist ideology condemns the mere existence of being white as racist and wrong. And since whites dominated the Western culture, everything great that came from it became tainted with the stain of racism. Yet while racism is the focus on all that is wrong here, a different standard is applied to everyone else. The fact that 40 million slaves exist in predominately non-western countries today is completely ignored. Kendi’s further claim that American capitalism was built on slavery is easily dismissed by the economic surge that followed the end of slavery during Reconstruction. Now calls for reparations to atone for the past sin of slavery disregard the trillions in welfare doled out since the 1960s that failed to lift blacks as promised.
Judeo-Christianity, one of the foundational traditions of Western culture, brought Western civilization everything from the law, economics, education, medical care, the arts, and much, much more. It gave “The West” religious freedom and the concept of justice and liberty. Whether you are religious or not, its doctrines formed a moral and charitable society. Now the old religion is being replaced with a new secular alternative. Critical theory wants to transform the entire foundation of society, by removing the spiritual, cultural, and political pillars that gave people free thought and free expression. That means the Constitution, American principles, and traditions would not survive.
History has shown how “The West” left the backward, dependent world behind and chose instead opportunity, growth, and independence. The intellectual movement that emerged following the Enlightenment gave us reason and science, which led to enhanced freedom, equality, and individual rights. The ensuing equality of opportunity replaced the social hierarchy of the past, leaving individuals to write their own history. But equal outcomes aren’t a given, freedom means some will do better than others.
Even so, the anti-West movement continues to condemn “The West” as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and greedy. So, what country outside of “The West” would this new movement most like to emulate? Many non-West countries are closed to outsiders and have archaic values. Some still oppress women, throw gays off buildings, and lag far behind in economic prosperity. They oppose capitalism because they don’t like the accumulation of wealth by a few over the majority.
Gone are the rose-colored glasses of the past, and in are the warped spectacles of the present. Now, “The West” is the scapegoat for all that is wrong. There is a danger in our continued apathy. The longer we allow these misrepresentations to fester, the sooner that all the gains that have been made will be lost. America and “the West” are unique in the world. We should be singing her praises.
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