CHAPTER ONE ROOTS OF THE WEST __ The purpose of this work is to present key ideas that have shaped the western world. ‘The book does not attempt to give a history of western civilization in a nutshell, but seeks to show main ideas that have gone into the making of the west, and stil are its ‘main sources of its inspiration, The assumption of the book is that the west is more than = haphazard conglomeration of individual countries and more than a sequence of Joosely connected historical periods. Beyond the differences of individual countries ‘and historical eras, there is a core of fundamental ideas. ‘Western civilization is not a geographical concept. Its birthplace is the Mediter- ‘fanean—Greece, Palestine, and Italy. From there, it spread throughout Europe and the ‘Middle East. A penetration into Asia and Africa lasted for several centuries. Egypt, for sxample, was a Christian country before the advent of Islam. But it was in Europe th ‘Greco-Judeo-Christian civilization thrived, and it was Europe that transplanted this ‘civilization to other continents over the last five hundred years. Spain and Portugal cre- ‘sted anew world in South and Central America; England transplanted its language, cus- ‘toms, law, and religion to North America and Australia; the French recreated their own civilization in Quebec. ‘The spread of the west should not be confused with mere colonial expansion. Where Europeans did the dirty work of clearing the forest and plowing the soil, western ci ‘zation, generally, was most fully transplanted, Where, on the other hand, Europeans _ femained a small minority—a master race exploiting subjected indigenous majori- ‘ies—western civilization has often been only a veneer over an enduring, non-western ‘civilization, __Less than two hundred fifty years old, the United States is now the center of gravity ‘of western civilization in terms of economics, politics, culture, and military power, As- ‘suming that this civilization continues to exist, it is easily conceivable that the center of ‘sestern civilization will someday be elsewhere. In antiquity, Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome were the leading points. During the Dark Ages, Byzantium (not Rome) was the ‘most important site of cultural, literary, and administrative leadership. In the seven- ‘fecath and eighteenth centuries, Paris was the undisputed cultural capital of the west. | Is the nineteenth century, London inherited that place. New York became the leading ‘ertistic, scientific, and intellectual clearing-house in the world during the twentieth 34 Great Political Thinkers century, and its place in the year 2000 is being taken, in terms of cultural influence by Los Angeles and the west coast, demonstrating the geographical mobility of west- ern civilization. Western civilization is not a fixed geographical emity largely because it revolves around potentially universal ideas rather than a more limited core of racial or ethnic links. The supra-national and supra-racial quality of western civilization at its best is the distinctive feature that has made it so adaptable, dynamic, and enduring: Western civilization is not tied to a particular race, nation, or geographical area. Its center of ‘gravity has shifted, throughout its evolution from the Eastern Mediterranean through Europe to a community of nations in both the eastern and western hemispheres. Not all European nations have consistently demonstrated a western outlook. Nazi Germany provides the most glaring example of a European nation’s intentional renunciation of western values, Over the last five hundred years, hardly a corner of the world, from the tropical jun- gles to the frozen Arctic, has not felt the impact of western civilization. In terms of space and time, there has never been a civilization of such scope and magnitude. Tec nological and scientific impact are undisputed, and the more controversial issue of spi itual and intellectual influence is not much different. Asian and African societies only gained independence after they developed a class of leaders trained in the west or ac- cording to western methods, The revolt of non-western societies against their western ‘overlords occurred following their indoctrination by the west in the concept of indivi uals’ rights to happiness and dignity: Asians and Africans did not revolt against the west, but against its failure to practice its own teachings in dealing with non-western although often a perversion and distortion of western ideas and ideals, ‘was western in origin. As Lenin cogently observed, Marx derived his economic ideas from British economics, his political ideas from French revolutionary politics, and his philosophy from German thinkers. To some non-westerners, communism appeared the quickest way to modernization and westernization. ‘The questions we have to answer are, what is so essential in the structure of western civilization that, were it removed, the whole building would either collapse or at least require overall reconstruction rather than patchwork repairs; and, on what principles are its ethical, legal, economic, social, and political structures founded? It is difficult to ‘know what is fundamental, because every aspect calls for attention, We shall find the roots of western civilization and its political theories when, in going back into the past, ‘we reach a point beyond which itis either impossible or impractical to inquire. This pro- cess will allow us to sift the enduring from the ephemeral, the essential from the inci- dental, and the fundamental from the decorative. ‘We know that reason, the belief in reason, and the use of reason are not inventions of the twentieth century. Immediately, one recalls the great Age of Reason or Enlighten- ‘ment which reached a peak in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France and irradi- ated throughout the entire western world. Yet, we know France did not invent the cult of reason—rationalism as.a way of life—and so we go back and back until we finally find the origin: sixth-century p.c. Greece, It is true, of course, that the Greeks did not start from scratch—various Oriental peoples influenced them, Nevertheless, Greek civilization, as it imprinted itself on much of the world, was original; it was not derived from any earlier people in the same direct way in which other peoples borrowed some of their basic ideas from the Greeks.Roots of the West 5 ‘The second root of the west is the Jewish belief in one God (monotheism), with the re- sulting concepts of the brotherhood of mankind (all men and women being children of the same Father) and of one world ruled by a higher law which is above human whim ‘and arbitrariness. Again, it can be shown that some other nations “came close” to the ‘concept of one God before the Jews did, But just as the Greeks were the first to assign to reason a place in thought and conduct such as no society had done before, the Jews ‘were the first to build their whole life around their belief in one God, and to base their thought, ethics, law, and government on this belief. ‘The practical expression of thought in action is central in classical Judaism. Had the Jewish contribution been confined to an original discovery in religion as a philosophical ‘exercise, its impact on western civilization would have been temporary. But Jewish be- lief in one God was reflected in a moral code that remains the foundation of western aw and ethics. Whereas the supreme Greek ideal was (o think clearly, the supreme Jew- ish aspiration was to act justly. The third western root is the Christian conception of love. Christianity incorporated Greek rationalism and absorbed Jewish monotheistic ethics, and added a new dimension that went beyond both: the principle of love as the-basis of people’s relation with God, and, more importantly, each other. ‘Once again, the point can be made that Greek thought and life put a great value on “sympathy” (a Greek word meaning ‘“to feel with”) and friendship, the latter consid- ered by Aristotle, for example, to be the basis of all social and political organiza~ tions. The Greeks were intensely interested in love; Plato's dialogue Symposium is one of the great conversations on love in world literature. Yet love in the Symposium is primarily the mutual embrace of two souls soaring together to the heights of per- fection in the life of reason. On a lower level, love was seen by the Greeks as a fierce demon, something approaching madness. Similarly, classical Jewish thought empha- ‘sizes compassion and charity, and admonishes its adherents to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” But neither the Greek nor the Jewish conception of love has the uncondi- tional, universal character of Christian love. In Christian thought, love is not in the periphery of life, in the rare moments of ecstasy, but in the center of life: Love is life itself. The three roots of western life—Greek rationalism, Jewish monotheism, and Chris- tian love—are so encompassing that it is difficult, if not impossible, to derive specific social, economic, or political systems from them, Both the Old and New Testaments ‘have been invoked to justify slavery and human freedom, obedience to government and ‘revolution, democracy and monarchy, and capitalism and socialism, to mention but a few. Similarly, Greek rationalism has been appealed to in support of authoritarianism ‘and liberalism, the planned economy and free enterprise, censorship and freedom of ‘thought, and many other contradictory political and philosophical systems. ‘These contradictions have two causes. First, the conceptions of Greek rationalism, Jewish monotheism, and Christian love have never fully been lived up to in the western ‘world. They have served as guiding ideals, but practice has often lagged behind the ‘deals. Second (and a reason which often is overlooked), these three sources of western thought are not completely complementary. There has always been a tension—though ‘not irreconcilable—between the three elements, a pressure which has been both painful ‘and fruitful. In antiquity itself, for example, Greeks and Jews were not overly fond of ‘one another. ‘To the ancient Greek, the ancient Jew was a fanatical puritan, living by @ ‘strict code that knew of no concessions to human frailty or levity. To the Jew, the Greek—with all his theorizing and endless philosophizing—was an ethical barbarian,