A culture that engendered the spiritual creations of Mozart and Beethoven, Wagner and Schubert, of Raphael and Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt does not need lessons in spirituality from societies whose vision of heaven resembles a cosmic brothel stocked with virgins for men’s pleasure.
Defending the West is made more difficult by the fact that so many Europeans harbor an extreme anti-Americanism. Many do not accept that the United States is a part of the same Western civilization, and that it stands or falls together with Europe in the face of a new totalitarian threat.
Encased in their provincialism and supported by Western intellectuals, Third World leaders blamed the West for the failures of their own cultures. Instead of asking themselves 'What did we do wrong? How can we put it right?' they asked 'Who did that to us?'
Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence was effective with the British precisely because they were not inclined to use excessive force against unarmed civilians. Instead, they behaved in a civilized manner, and they left. Would Gandhi’s tactics have worked with the Nazis?
Natural endowment is far less consequential than the ability to use it productively, and that ability is an outcome of culture.
One of the most basic elements of western-style democracies is freedom of conscience, which is necessary for achieving true consent of the governed.
Self-censorship and appeasement will not solve problems in the Middle East. Surrendering the liberties guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights will not bring peace to the world. We have a right to expect that our government will defend our constitutional rights instead of kowtowing to those who emphatically reject our values.
Some western scholars have tried to argue that Islamic anti-Semitism is only a recent phenomenon learned from the Nazis and that Jews lived safely under Islamic rule for centuries, especially in medieval Spain. These assertions are not supported by the evidence.
The British Empire is typically characterized as an overwhelmingly negative force in history, but a comparison with the rival imperialism of Islam provides a corrective to this view.
The political correctness that inhibits cultural comparisons may be as great a danger as secret police in the long run, effectively silencing any defense of the West.
The West did not get rich because of slavery or imperialism or because of a neocolonialism that supposedly siphons off the riches of Third World countries. It is successful because of its culture, rooted in the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage, because of the distinctive institutions that developed over centuries, because of the freedom granted to individuals.
The West is able to look at its own foibles and laugh, even make fun of its own fundamental principles. There is no Islamic equivalent to Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Can we look forward to seeing The Life of Mo anytime in the future?
Today, cultural relativism in the West discourages cross-cultural judgments, thus impeding the reform of injustices around the world and inhibiting the defense of Western civilization.
Western values—the basis of the West’s self-evident economic, social, political, scientific, and cultural success—are clearly superior to any other set of values devised by mankind.