A disease is spreading throughout the West. Heirs of a great civilization have come to the conclusion we are unworthy of our success; that our preeminent status has been built upon imperialism that denied lesser cultures their opportunity at greatness. Self-loathing has become fashionable. These aggrieved philosophers bask in a faux humility by begging the world to forgive us for modernity.
I will not apologize for modernity. As a matter of fact, I believe it’s an accomplishment that people have the leisure to ponder the benefits this great civilization has gifted the world, while complaining about it. And without a doubt one of the biggest beneficiaries of Western civilization are women.
Today’s women have the leisure to attend college, enroll in women’s studies and bitch about men. But it was men who liberated women from the drudgery of household work. Take for instance the electric washing machine. Elva J. Fisher invented Thor back in 1910 and life was made easier. Here is an excerpt from the Irish Times:
This morning I placed the dirty laundry in the washing machine, pressed start and went next door for coffee. Later I transferred the clothes to my dryer, pressed a button and “wash day” was over.
Gone is the drudgery of wash day of my childhood in rural Ireland in the 1950s. Monday was laundry day. I helped when I was not in school. Mam was up early bringing water from the nearby pump. The big pot was boiling on the cooker and the two big galvanised metal tubs were ready in the scullery. The laundry was separated in piles according to colour and soiling. The whites were washed first, and that water was reused, topped up with hot water and the water changed as necessary. We used Rinso soap powder with carbolic soap to help remove stains.
Our washboard was a wooden frame with panels of fluted tin. It was the bane of my life. My hands were sore and chapped from rubbing dirty clothes up and down the board. We had a mangle outside the back door, and the clothes were fed through the rollers to remove the excess water. A blue bag was added to the rinsing water to whiten the shirts and detached collars and cuffs. My dad’s shirts needed to be starched, requiring yet another basin of water.
And that was in the 1950’s! There are women in Third World countries knee deep in a river beating clothes with rocks. I bet they would appreciate a little Western civilization right about now.
Oh, and let’s not forget two of the greatest crimes Western civilization has wrought upon humanity: slavery and imperialism. Today’s intellectuals would have us believe the West invented the twin sisters of the apocalypse. But that again is faux history. Here is an excerpt from an article by Philip Carl Salzman entitled, It’s Time to Fight for Western Civilization:
This make-believe postcolonial theory is based on willful blindness to the facts of history. Imperialism was a major phenomenon of world history for millennia prior to the venturing forth of the Europeans in the 16th century: the Akkadian Empire of 2300 BC, the Hittite Empire of 1700 BC, the Babylonian Empire of 1600 BC, the Persian Empire of the 6th century BC, the Chinese Empire 221 BC to 1911, the Arab Muslim Empire 632-1258, the Mongol Empire of 1206- 1405, the Ottoman Empire 1299-1922, the Russian Empire 1721-1917, and dozens and dozens of others.
So, the impression that post-colonialists wish to impart, that imperialism was uniquely a product of the West, that Western imperialism was uniquely evil, and that it corrupted through violence and imposition a peaceful and happy world, has no basis in historical reality. In addition to all of the earlier empires, societies outside imperial reach were often tribal societies characterized by a constant jockeying, competition, conflict, and warfare among tribes for access to resources and for honor and glory.
Postcolonialism exhibits a double standard: The West is condemned for its imperialism, but Asian, African, and pre-Columbian American (Aztec and Inka) empires are ignored. This theory also offers a racism of low expectations in describing non-Western cultures and societies solely as victims, lacking in their own agency, subject only to the will of their Western conquerors. Postmodernism is false history.
This article is well worth the read.
I believe we’re all getting sick and tired of aggrieved classes complaining about nothing. These people have no appreciation for where they live, nor do they have a comprehensive understanding of history, or the world at large. It’s time to call these thumb suckers out.
Source:
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/thank-you-alva-j-fisher-inventor-of-the-electric-washing-machine-1.3018802
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2018/06/06/its-time-to-defend-and-protect-western-civilization/
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