We Should Not Be Reluctant to Assert the Superiority of Western Values
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Channel: Intelligence Squared
Views: 446,352
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Keywords: Intelligence Squared, Debate, great oratory, Intelligence Squared debate, speech, top debates, best debates, most interesting debates, educational debates, intelligence2, intelligencesquared, is debate, iq2, iq2 debate, iq squared, David Aaronovitch, Ibn Warraq, Tariq Ramadan, William Dalrymple, Charles Glass, Edward Lucas, the west, western values, morals, law, legality, morality, islam, christianity, free speech, religion
Id: n3wcjwY4mz8
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Length: 101min 30sec (6090 seconds)
Published: Mon Aug 05 2013
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I listened to this talk a while back, my memory is foggy on it and I think I'll have a listen again but I had a few comments to make anyway.
It reminds me of a recent post from David Deutsch talking with someone who was voicing their distaste for nationalism. They got right to the verge of noticing that if part of your culture is a healthy concern for nationalism, that itself is a form of nationalism. A good form, but still a form.
Being part of a group is inevitable. You cannot cooperate with others without shared values and you can't avoid seeing those values as higher than at least SOME out-group values... even if that includes valuing out-group values themselves.
Many modern progressives have a bias against what is similar to them in certain demographics (race, sex, sexual identity, etc) and a bias toward the outlier. This is not really a BAD thing, it's good that we have people who are concerned with those outside the bounds of what's included. The problem arises when the same people cannot see that they, themselves, have an in-group and have no tolerance for those who are outside that group who (confusing as this sounds) have a bias toward in-group members.
Submission statement: The great ideas of the West—rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the rule of law and equality under the law, freedom of thought and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy—are superior to any others devised by humankind. It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in Africa, where rival tribes sold black prisoners into slavery. The West has secured freedoms for women and racial and other minorities to an extent unimaginable 60 years ago. The West recognizes and defends the rights of the individual: we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live lives of our choosing.
A debate on whether or not we should be reluctant to assert the superiority of these western values over eastern ones. One of the debaters argumenting in favour of the notion is IDW member Douglas Murray.
While I'm not a conservative, I've always said that I generally agree with 50% of what a true conservative says. The problem in America is that we no longer separate conservatism from reactionary/right-wing.
I think the trick is not to call them Western but merely humanist values.