Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the notion that all civilizations are equal, is provably false, yet it is one that has caught on today. It is to hold the barbarian as equal to the civilized. If all civilizations are indeed equal, then by any measure, they would come out the same. Allowing the notion, all civilizations are equal in the aggregate, then the good and bad of any given civilization will balance. What measures to use though? Inevitably, any measure we use will be weighted towards Western values, like freedoms, equality, standard of living, oppression, poverty rates, the existence of institutions we find offensive, like slavery and racism… because we have been civilized by Western values. The civilizations the West is being compared to hold them as good though. So, we must use western values, else the West wins by default.
Anything and everything can be compared by measurement. All that is required is a scale. Simple things can be measured simply and complex things must be measured complexly. We can measure which board is longer by using feet and inches, we can measure the standard of living of a society by the individual gross domestic product, and we can measure the loudness of a sound by decibels. To say that two things are equal and not supplying a measure is like stepping into air. Look at two boards, they are clearly not equal, but if you are not allowed to refute the claim they are the same length, by measuring in board feet, the claim is spurious. Because any claim must be justifiable and verifiable, any claim that does not allow for measure is certainly not verifiable, therefore is sophistry.
Western civilization today is under attack because of historical sins. The criticisms are, by our Western value structure, justified. Holding the Christian Enlightened Western ideals, human life is sacred, Natural Rights, discourse as the arbiter of truth, the Golden Rule and individualism, we find our history to be disturbing. The practice of slavery by our ancestors is a black mark, as is the slaughter on an industrial scale of human beings during our World Wars. Government induced famines were a crime against humanity. The genocides of the Armenians, Gypsies, Jews, and Roma, cannot be forgiven by any but the victims. These are sins that we and our civilization are being judged for. Even though, in every case, the crime was predicated against, and a violation of… Western moral values!
A glance through history shows that these institutions, slavery, genocide, forced migrations, wars and oppression, are found in every civilization known, throughout history. There is not one civilization that did not practice most if not all these things. Conventional wisdom was, civilizations believed that the strong must subjugate the weak, so the strong may survive and the weak perish. This thinking was discredited by Western Civilization. None of these sins are unique to Western Civilization, they have occurred from time immemorial by all civilizations, except now in the West. Since our historical sins match those of every other, they negate each other in a comparison… even based on Western morality. Therefore we must look at what is of greater worth among the various known civilizations.
The simple fact that Western Civilization uniquely values life as precious, freedom as intrinsic, and has as an ideal the Golden Rule, is singular in the history of the world. These philosophical innovations, unequaled, have led to our forefather’s achievements. Achievements that are not matched by any other… the abolition of slavery, freedom of the press, the popular vote, the scientific method, and free enterprise. These are advancements that we have not seen in any previous civilization, or any that exists today, outside Western Civilization. Therefore, the supposition that all civilizations are equal, even in the aggregate, is spurious. Since it is only by our own morally innovative western values that we can condemn ourselves! Why then do so many push and believe such a measurably wrong assertion?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
