This is a line of thought I’ve been considering lately. Maybe I’ll adopt it some day. I figured I’d post it here for discussion and note-keeping purposes. I’m probably not the first person to think of it but I don’t recall seeing it elsewhere.
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Whatever Western culture was, it destroyed itself in the First World War.
The revolutionary aspirations of the 1960s were the result of widespread attempts to break free from the philosophical nihilism that prevailed from 1914 to the mid-sixties. These aspirations were largely co-opted by Marxist-Leninist authoritarians and professional liberals into support for a more stable kind of domination, but still had lasting beneficial effects.
This implies that saying you fight for “Western Civilization” is a nicer way of saying you support Western domination over global civilization.
Shortcomings with this thesis:
1) It’s very simple, so it is inherently limited to providing one model for thinking about one brief period of history.
2) How do anti-colonial, particularly post-WWII era, struggles fit in?
3) Should massive anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements within Western nations during the era 1914-1964 (eg, Insurrectionary Ukraine, Revolutionary Spain) be seen as attempts to create a new world that were not as widespread/noticeable/broad-based as those of the 1960s?
4) Naturally a counter-culture was growing below the dominant ideas during this time – that is what emerged in the 1960s to challenge the dominant culture.
But noticeable advances in applying classical liberal ideas, which seems to be the defining positive factor of 19th Century Western culture, did occur during the 1914-1964 era. Regardless of what one thinks of voting as a measure of freedom, women’s suffrage does represent a measure of greater social equality than before. Efforts towards racial desegregation gained ground during this era. And the defeat of the European Axis powers unquestionably resulted in greater liberty for millions, despite the unnecessary deaths, strategic bombing murder, and the ceding of Eastern Europe to Stalinist rule.
5) Let’s not pretend that racism, sexism, and religious discrimination are “solved” problems in the West, or let Westerners off the hook for supporting murderous politicians. But nations considered “Western” in general seem to be environments where more tolerant and open cultures predominate than in nations considered “non-Western.”
65 years ago today, the United States government dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, condemning to death and agony thousands of individuals who were not responsible to the war. I can’t think of a culture that dropped two atomic bombs on civilians primarily to demonstrate national power as something worth preserving. The golden days are ahead of us.
“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time.” – attributed to Edward Grey
