Thought for the Day

Have you ever read something that was written so well that there is nothing you can add to it? His essay discusses the basis balance of what pillars Western Civilization is built upon and the tension between finding a balance between them all. Go read his whole post, but here is the thesis to get your started:

I would argue that there are five things that make the West the West.

Although they are often called by different names, I know them as the following:

1. Democracy/The Rule of Law
2. Capitalism
3. Religion (and religious freedom).
4. The Nation State
5. The Scientific Method/Spirit of Inquiry.

These things do not exist independently of each other; indeed, it is only by keeping them in balance that a society functions in a healthy way. They are the pillars on which our community rests -- elevate any one of them too far and you tip over the platform of civil society. Saw one of these pillars through and the platform becomes rickety, and subject to collapse.

Democracy carried too far ends in mob rule. Capitalism carried too far leads to sweatshops and corruption. Religious extemism ends in the inquisition. Unbridled nationalism becomes Fascism. And too much of a love of science leads to Huxley's Brave New World. In other words, any of these good things, carried to an extreme, will undermine and subvert the others. And the neglect of any one of them means that one is living in a society that is, at some level, sick.