Western Civilization Faces a Stark Choice Ⅱ
Economic Growth
The west's stunning economic advance
over the past 1000 years, and especially the last 200 years,
has made mankind an ecological success and the west dominant.
Victories over hunger and disease are unprecedented.
Yet, if non-western countries eventually reached
western consumption levels, the damage to the environment
would be multiplied 12 times. The planet cannot cope with that.
Happily, a new factor is emerging—
the “personalised economy”,
driven by imagination and intellect,
not capital and hierarchy.
Growth today can be increasingly “weightless”—
we consume software and services rather than hunks of metal.
In the last century the US economy grew to
20 times its earlier size, but the weight
of output stayed roughly the same.
Averting ecological suicide requires growth
using far fewer finite resources.
Individualism
This has always been the west's most striking characteristic.
Now many inside the west are worried by individualism.
Our highly atomistic society makes it easy to feel a failure.
Every civilization has had self-made people.
Ours is the first to foster millions
of self-destroyed people.
Yet selfish individualism is a recent heresy,
a contradiction. Historically,
individualism has advanced higher standards
of personal behavior, with community building,
with leadership. We have stopped requiring that.
If we do not demand truly responsible individualism,
from our leaders, role models and ourselves,
our civilization will disintegrate.
Liberalism
The greatest threat to the west comes from liberalism's decline
and from the “liberal imperialists”
and neo-conservatives so influential in America.
Also from the “ultra-liberals”,
the relativists who see nothing special
about western liberal society,
who deny personal responsibility
and incubate the “victim mentality”.
But the greatest threat to liberalism is that
few still believe passionately in it.
Liberalism's successes have blunted its appeal.
Western civilisation has reached a fork in the road.
Down one road lie cynicism, aggression,
indifference, neo-conservatism and ultra-liberalism.
Down the other lies a recovery of nerve,
confidence in ourselves and our culture,
unity within and between America and Europe,
a society of individuals held together by self-improvement,
striving, optimism, reason, compassion,
equality and mutual identity.
The road chosen will determine whether our civilisation
collapses or reaches its destiny.