The West Is a Superior Civilization (And I Don’t Care If That Offends You)

We do not defend one civilization over another out of irrational passion. The West is not a football jersey we wear to compensate for our insecurities or our lack of personal identity. It is something closer to what the wise G. K. Chesterton said: “We are not asked to take off our heads when we enter the Church, but we are asked to take off our hats.” We do not adhere to Western values out of blind faith. We do so because there are a million reasons behind them.

We defend the West because we believe it represents the most advanced and prosperous moral, political, and social order in the history of civilization. Because we believe it is better. The Christian West is undeniably better than everything else; proof of that is that, for centuries, much of the non-Western world has tried to invade our countries. I do not want to jump to conclusions, but I doubt they are fleeing absolute happiness. 

With Scruton, we can argue that the West brought together, in its cultural and political inheritance, the rule of law, the separation of powers, individual rights, representative democracy, freedom of expression, modern science and technology, the market economy, and the abolition of slavery, among many other things.

Nor are we parrots repeating slogans. We do not believe the West is perfect. That would be like believing democracy is a perfect system. Democracy is often nothing more than the best idea we have come up with to avoid having to shoot each other every time we want to get rid of a cretin in government, which is incredibly tiring and stains your clothes terribly.