While driving the other day, and being bored with the news, I decided to listen to an excerpt from a collection of the great speeches of history. At random, the first speech was of Martin Luther at his trial for in 1521 before the Holy Roman Emperor and the Diet of Worms. That speech is considered the tipping point between the old world and the modern world as it threw down the challenge of a person to believe as they wished.
It was a wonderful speech, firm and positive, a brilliant discourse on his beliefs and the errors of his accusers. I was struck by the level of language and the phraseology which made one listen and think at the same time. It was in short magnificent. At the end of the speech, I continued onto the speech by Sir Thome More in 1535 and again, the level of intellect and the sharpness of mind forced me to marvel at how the leaders of their time risked all for their beliefs. The same was true for the speech by Queen Elizabeth I in 1588 as she rallied her subjects to defend the realm from an invasion by the Spanish. Her speech showed her leading by example with a willingness to die for her people.
The series of speeches start with one by Socrates in 399 B.C. and include speeches by Patrick Henry, Cromwell, Lincoln, Churchill and more. Listening to them, brought home to me the fact that unlike the “Reckoning” interpretation of history which we have today, the power structure of Western Man is not the result of some vast conspiracy against everyone else, but rather the result of thousands of years of inquiry, discourse, the struggle of ideas and ideals, and a quest for knowledge.
There is a story, possibly a fable, that when the great Chinese fleets sailed hundreds of years ago, one ship brought back to the Imperial Court, a giraffe. Everyone was amazed but the emperor asked what good is the animal? It does not look tasty, it gives no milk, one cannot ride it. In the end the emperor decreed that the native Chinese animals were better and, the great fleets with their magnificent ships were left to rot. How different from Western man! The record of inventions that have come about by the desire to learn, to make more efficient, to increase productivity are legend and most were done by individuals seeking something better not only for themselves, but for humanity.
The Western system is not always fair, or kind. But would anyone care to live life without the inventions and tools of the Western system? That is the cost if you want to be fair. Do not take the fruits without paying the price. Trivial things like electric light, modern medicines, fertilizers which have saved hundreds of millions from starvation, air travel, the automobile, telephones, etc.? Were wrongs done? Yes. Was there justice in the societies conquered by the West? No. They like the societies of the West were flawed. In the end, we need to give the devil his due and move forward. Beating one’s chest due to the belief that one’s ancestors had been wronged will not move one forward. Self-pity is never attractive.
