Western Civilization

 

What exactly is “Western Civilization”? What makes it distinct from “Eastern Civilization” or “Middle Eastern Civilization,” or come other civilization? 

Not that it is Western, certainly. Australia and New Zealand are part of “Wesrern civilization,” and New Zealand is further east than any of the lands of “Eastern Civilization.”

Which tells us that “Western Civilization” is a euphemism. What we are referring to is Christian Civilization, Christendom. “Eastern Civilization” is founded instead on the principles of Confucius, while Christendom is founded on the Old and New Testaments. Morocco is not a part of Western Civilization, as far west as it is, because it is founded on the Quran and Shariah law, not the Old and New Testaments. Indian Civilization is not “Western” because it is founded on the Vedas as its bottom line.

This being so, if Christian civilization rejects Christianity, it collapses; it ceases to be. Not instantly, but inevitably. And that is the way things are going.

It is from Christian doctrine, from the New Testament, that we get the “self-evident” truth that all men are created equal. “Self-evident” is a con; Jefferson originally wrote, correctly, “sacred and inviolable.” Locke explained: it is not that it is self-evident; it follows from one divine creator and one act of creation. As the Levellers chanted in the English Revolution, “when Adam Delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?” In any polytheistic culture, there is no idea of human equality. Often the king claims exclusively divine ancestry; there are castes.

It is from Christian doctrine that we get the idea of human dignity and human rights. Human dignity follows from the claim that man is made in God’s image: so each man contains that divine spark. Human rights follow from the dogma that man was created, in the Garden of Eden story, to exercise free will and choose the moral good. He must therefore at all times be allowed the widest possible freedom of choice. The individual, in short, mut be free.

It is from Christianity that we get the idea of a separation of church and state, of freedom of religion, and of checks and balances on civil power. In pagan cultures, or in Islam, the civil power is also the religious power. There is no question of challenging the actions of the state, or of holding some non-state-sanctioned religious belief. This separation of sacred and secular spheres is succinctly expressed by Jesus in the New Testament: “render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s; render unto God what is God’s.”

And on it goes. Kick the Christian foundation out from all these assumptions, and there is nothing to support them. Sooner or later they are questioned, then no longer honoured. We are seeing this in real time. Nor will there be anything that magically appears to  replace them—any other foundation or set of general principles to which we can appeal in case of conflicting interests. We will no longer be able to do anything together: civilizational collapse.

Perhaps some new civilization might rise from the rubble. That might take thousands of years.