The "elephant in the living room" that no one will mention is the role of Western colonialism in bringing African nations into the twentieth century, and the collapse of those nations when the colonial influence--essentially a transplant of Western Culture--is withdrawn.

An African nation is prosperous in direct relation to how much of its original African culture was supplanted by Western culture.

Notice I use the terms "African" and "Western," not the terms "European," "white" or "black." This is deliberate, because we are not talking about race (which is irrelevant), but about culture (which is not.)

Just a point to think about. I don't recall these problems during the reign of apartheid. Epidemics, lack of resources, non-productive labor, massive crime, and other such things were not rampant in South Africa twenty years ago (granted, HIV is more recent than this). In fact, South Africa supported a thriving Western economy despite world-wide embargoes. Does this mean apartheid was a good idea? Of course not. But it means Western culture is.

You will not see quantitative studies on this subject, comparing Third World nations under Western influence with Third World nations that are not. Any academic on a modern American university campus who would even suggest it would be leaped upon by his colleagues who would tear out his throat with their teeth.

Anyway, even considering the idea that Western culture may actually be objectively superior to Third World cultures would probably cause a liberal's head to explode with such force that it would spatter the four walls of a basketball court.

* * *

Western culture in one (extended) sentence:

"From the perspective of intellectual and cultural content, Western civilization represents an understanding and acceptance of the following: the laws of logic; the concept of causality and, consequently, of a universe ruled by natural laws intelligible to man; on these foundations, the whole known corpus of the laws of mathematics and science; the individual's self-responsibility based on his free will to choose between good and evil; the value of man above all other species on the basis of his unique possession of the power of reason; the value and competence of the individual human being and his corollary possession of individual rights, among them the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness; the need for limited government and for the individual's freedom from the state; on this entire preceding foundation, the validity of capitalism, with its unprecedented and continuing economic development in terms of division of labor, technological progress, capital accumulation and rising living standards; in addition, the importance of visual arts and literature depicting man as capable of facing the world with confidence in his power to succeed, and music featuring harmony and melody."



-Dr. George Reisman, Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University's School of Business and Management in Los Angeles.

Excerpted from an article, "Education and the Racist Road to Barbarism" in The Intellectual Activist, Volume V, No. 4, April 30, 1990.



I have never seen it put better.