When Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke in Munich last week about the necessity of preserving Western Civilization, critics labeled his remarks “far right” and “sugar coated racism.” While that reaction is nearly reflexive for the modern left, it avoids the point Secretary Rubio was trying to make: Western Civilization is good and worth preserving.
This is not a remotely racist thing to say because Western Civilization is not an ethnicity. It’s not a genetic inheritance passed down through European bloodlines or a cultural preference for pastries and Bach. It is, at its core, a set of ideas about human dignity and the purpose of government; all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights that precede government itself. Because of this, the West determined that good government would serve the individual when the historical norm was that people served their government. The result has been unprecedented freedom and prosperity, but it still has serious competition.
Islamic theocracies believe the proper role of government is to compel submission to Islamic law for believers and infidels alike. In its most rigid forms, this produces governments with little respect for individual liberty—which explains why the most strictly Islamic nations rank among the world’s most oppressive.
Progressivism presents perhaps the most insidious challenge to Western ideals because it speaks the language of justice and equal rights while fundamentally rejecting Western principles. Where the West sees individuals, progressivism sees group identities. Where Western thought enshrines equal treatment under law, progressivism demands equal outcomes.
Under progressivism’s framework, government always takes the side of “the oppressed” who are to be believed and even obeyed regardless of facts, character, or competence. If you say you are a woman, then you are. Meanwhile, those deemed “oppressors” can expect to have their concerns ignored, their feelings dismissed, and their possession redistributed in the name of “equality.”
While these are not the only civilizational models, they illustrate that civilizational values can be mutually exclusive. You cannot merge Western Civilization and an Islamic theocracy. While it’s necessary to peacefully coexistence with people who are different than you, some differences are irreconcilable. Someone heading north cannot accommodate a travel companion determined to go south. At some point, we must agree to the same destination or part ways.
The disproportionate flow of migration into Western nations suggests there is something uniquely good about what the West has built.
None of this is racist.
Yes, Western Civilization developed in Europe, but the ideas on which Western Civilization is built have been embraced by people of every ethnicity because they’re good, true, and beautiful. The notion that we should reject these principles because of their European heritage is the actual racism—judging ideas not by their merit but by the skin color of their earliest proponents. Condemning Western Civilization because long-deceased Europeans did bad things is like refusing to use electricity because Thomas Edison mistreated animals in some of his experiments. It’s virtue signaling to your own detriment.
Does this mean Western Civilization is intolerant? In a sense, yes. If Western civilization is worth preserving, then we must oppose efforts to destroy it. But this is the productive intolerance of an immune system fighting disease, not the arbitrary bigotry of prejudice. It’s the kind of intolerance wisdom demands and survival requires.
None of this means Western Civilization is static. The arrival of an Indian restaurant is not a sign of civilizational collapse. In fact, the disproportionate flow of migration into Western nations suggests there is something uniquely good about what the West has built. But the kind of diversity that strengthens rather than destroys requires an understanding of why some places are better than others and a willingness to help move in that direction. Provided the people who love curry also come to understand that God made us in His image and gave us rights the government is obligated to protect, their curry makes us stronger.
Marco Rubio wasn’t engaging in coded racism last week. He was acknowledging and reasserting the choice every society must make: Which foundational principles will guide us? Refusing to have this conversation doesn’t make the question disappear—it simply ensures we’ll end up somewhere on accident. Despite the well-document imperfections of the people involved, Western Civilization represents humanity’s best answer yet to the question of how people should live together.
Defending that isn’t bigotry. It’s wisdom.
