Western Civiliization - What is it and Why is it important?

There are a few current writers who constantly amaze me with their grasp of nearly everything and the depth of their analysis.  One of them is Conrad Black and the other is Jonah Goldberg.  What is at least passingly interesting is that they both write for the National Review, a conservative news magazine that has morphed into an online news magazine.

I am extremely happy that I have become a reader of their wisdom - that is what it really is.

I recall, not fondly, the hatred I heard in my earlier and ignorant days as a socialist in Saskatchewan, towards the 'evil' (according to communists, socialists and others of that ilk)  William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of the National Review.   What confounded and enraged those socialist ideologues, mostly university professors, many followers of the nonsense fostered by irresponsible socialist professors like Herbet Marcuse, of UC Berkley,  was Buckley's erudition, his facility with language, and the ultimate truth of his analysis and grasp of politics, economic and humanistic issues.  In this he has been succeeded by such as the aforesaid Goldberg, Black and others.

Saskatchewan is the birthplace of  both myself  and a genuinely useful public health care system (none of that to my credit, but to my father's and other good souls), that nowadays has become a bureaucratic nightmare, but still does provide a useful service, despite the efforts of the unions to destroy it through their greed and obstructionism.

Today these same people hang on to their delusions and loyalties, despite decades of proof that they were and are misguided and wrong.  It may be a little thing, but these people, in the late 1970's, pointed to the Weston conglomerate creation, Superstore, a grocery and dry goods retailer,  whose large outlets had been established throughout much of western Canada, as an evil plot to entice shoppers to purchase low-priced food and other commodities, and predicted that after the competition was destroyed, Superstore would then institute high prices to fleece consumers.  None of this happened.  Now, nearly 50 years later, the prices are still low and shoppers still flock to the outlets.

What has this got to do with Western Civilization?  Simply put - Western Civilization, with its centuries long history of capitalist development since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the  mid-1700's, with its philosophical roots in the Enlightenment beginning in the 1400's, has brought great wealth,  prosperity and democracy with individual freedoms and rights to most everyone in the developed and industrialized Western World.

The current crop of left-wing so-called progressives are hell bent on destroying this civilization.  The enemies of our great civilization in Canada, especially its culture, including its economy, jobs and values, are the federal and provincial Liberal Parties,  the union dominated NDP, and the Greens, while in the US it is the confused coalition of Democrats containing within its shell many wild socialists intent on destroying U.S. culture and its economy.

Should anyone have a problem understanding what Western Civilization is all about, think of it this way:

"Forget calling it Western civilization for a moment. Instead think of a kind of party platform with a bunch of planks:

    Support for human rights
    Belief in the rule of law
    Dedication to democracy
    Free speech
    Freedom of conscience
    Admiration for science and the scientific method
    Curiosity about other cultures
    Property rights
    Tolerance or celebration of technological and/or cultural innovation"


That's a good start at getting your head around the question.


Goldberg has written much about this development, and his latest article on the subject, entitled "What’s So Great about Western Civilization", can be read at:

https://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/whats-so-great-about-western-civilization/