Bringing Western Values to Capitol Hill

The Objectivist Center took the discussion about the basis of a free society where it is needed most: Capitol Hill. A star-studded lineup, including Christopher Hitchens and TOC executive director David Kelley, discussed "What Are Western Values and Should We Return to Them?" during a half-day TOC conference in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3.

Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who has introduced non-binding legislation calling on schools to again teach Western history and Western values, kicked off the event. He told an audience of about seventy-five, which included Representative Ed Royce (R-CA), and congressional staffers about his consternation at finding a textbook that began a discussion of the United States with: "Columbus discovered America and destroyed paradise." He once asked a group of some two hundred high-school students how many of them thought they lived in the greatest country in the world and found only two dozen sheepishly raising their hands. He didn't think they hated America or preferred other lands, only that they did not know how to defend this country. Incidents like these showed him the need for schools to educate students about the West so that—whether they agree with or are critical of Western values—they will at least know what those values are and where they come from. But Tancredo, no subjectivist, also believes that there are inherent values in Western civilization that are good and worthy of our allegiance, and that we should try to instill these in the next generation.

The first panel discussed the conservative, multiculturalist, and Objectivist views of Western and Americans values. Lee Edwards of the Heritage Foundation outlined the conservative view in terms of five cities: Jerusalem gave the West religion and a view of the transcendent. Athens gave it philosophy, art, and drama. Rome gave it law, with Cicero providing an understanding of ordered liberty. The Middle Ages, which Edwards maintained were not "dark," helped synthesize these traditions. London was the mother of parliaments. And Philadelphia gave America the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Edwards maintained that the blending of these traditions accounts for the strength of the United States.

Next, Marcus Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies said that beliefs about the West are often stories or narratives that individuals impose on history, and that these can obscure the real facts. For example, America was formed in part through force of arms, with white Christians displacing Native Americans in the name of what they saw as their superior values. Raskin observed that the West has been strong in protecting private space, that is, the right of individuals to their own bodies. He also discussed the meaning and importance of tolerance in education.

TOC executive director David Kelley maintained that many multiculturalists are not simply neutral on value questions but, rather, see the West as a force for evil that deserves censure. He also noted that conservatives might tend toward chauvinism, favoring Western values because they are Western. But Kelley stated that, in fact, we should embrace certain Western values not because they are Western but because they are universal and appropriate for all people. He observed that the scientific approach that arose in the West is now embraced in all civilized countries. Liberty and economic freedom are now seen as beneficial throughout the world. So, Kelley concluded, schools should offer material that is of value from any culture, not to make minorities feel better about themselves, but because the material is excellent by objective standards.

The second panel started with noted author Christopher Hitchens, who focused on the role of religion. He noted, for example, that the works of Aristotle were essentially lost in the Christian West during the Middle Ages and returned to Europe through Muslim Baghdad and Spain. But the enlightened tradition in Spain was destroyed by both Muslim and Catholic fundamentalists. Hitchens also noted that the European Enlightenment followed terrible religious wars that showed it was simply too costly to fight over what kind of a Christian one should be. After this futile strife, the study of mankind came to be seen as a worthwhile endeavor. The creation of the United States came out of this tradition.

Using the writings of Karl Marx, Hitchens documented an East-West encounter that turned out well. While there were adverse effects of British rule in India, it did bring railroads, the telegraph, and the English language, which still unites the country and facilitates a literary tradition. He further noted that the British put an end to certain barbaric practices, such as burning widows alive on their husbands' funeral pyres. As evidence of a successful synthesis, Hitchens pointed out that there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan, but that India does not have a problem with radical Islam, perhaps because modernist India has a free press, a parliamentary system, and regular elections. In conclusion, he maintained that there is a battle in the West between Enlightenment elements, who favor an open mind and society, free inquiry, innovation, and reason, and those, represented by the religious right, who stand for faith, dogma, and stagnation.

Next, Barry Latzer of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni discussed his recent study of curricula in fifty leading universities. He found that 48 percent of these schools required students to take courses in only zero to two of seven core areas: composition, literature, foreign languages, American government and history, economics, math, and science. Even within these areas, some of the courses had little to do with those core disciplines—one university offered "rock music from 1970 to the present" and another offered "campus culture and drinking" to satisfy humanities requirements. Latzer's bottom line: we cannot rely upon American universities to transmit Western values to the next generation.

TOC Washington director Edward Hudgins rounded out the panel by discussing values and a common knowledge base as ethical infrastructure.

All in all, this TOC conference brought a thought-provoking discussion and the value of free inquiry—a crucial Western value!—to Washington, D.C.