source:
http://www.turkishweekly.net/printer-friendly/printerfriendly.php?ty=
pe=3Dnews&id=3D55115
author: Guy Sorman, a French philosopher and economist
Everyone everywhere has by now heard about the =93clash of
civilizations.=94 This Samuel Huntington concept has become universal.
In the 1950=92s, the French economist, Alfred Sauvy had a comparable
success with the expression =93third world.=94 One reason these phrases
gain wide acceptance is their lack of clear definition. The =93clash of
civilizations,=94 basically the West against the rest, is supposed to
describe the world as it is. In reality, the West is vague enough to
include a vast array of areas without describing their unifying
characteristics.
So what exactly is West? What does Westernization mean? Why is Japan
considered Western and China not? Where does Shanghai stand? Is Russia
part of the West?
=46rom these uncertainties, we can conclude that the West is not a
geographic entity. It probably first established itself as a mindset
when the Greeks, 25 centuries ago, perceived themselves as Western
versus the Oriental Persians. Since the West has lost any clear
territorial basis since then, the phrase =93the West=94 has become a
universal not a local notion.
To be Western or Westernized, above all, is a mindset which does not
coincide with any continent, nor with any specific nation or religion.
Huntington=92s mistake, it seems, was to contain the West inside
national borders: there is no map of the West.
No map can work when some Asian nations are Western (Japan, Taiwan),
when non-Western groups (Muslims in Europe) live in supposedly Western
countries, when some Eastern countries are partially Westernized and
some Western countries (Russia) are not fully Westernized. Eventually
it looks easier to define the mental borders of the West than its
territorial borders.
I believe that the West is a mindset defined by three fundamental
traits that cannot easily be found in the so-called Eastern
civilizations: a passion for innovation, a capacity for self-
criticism, and gender equality.
=91What is new?=92 -- a personal greeting since the Hellenistic age =96
captures the essence of the Western mind. The non-Westerner, however,
would rather place tradition above innovation. But innovation as a
fundamental value explains the scientific breakthroughs of the West
versus the East. It explains unavoidable conflicts with conservative
non-Western societies and it also explains what we should call =91the
Westernization of the West.=92
The West keeps destroying its own traditions, including its religions.
The economist Joseph Schumpeter defined this process as one of
=93creative destruction.=94 The term could be applied to all walks of life
in the West. Western conservatives are no less prone to creative
destruction than Western liberals: conservatives, indeed, are well
known for inventing traditions. Take the 19th century British Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who invented most of the supposedly
ancient traditions around the British monarchy. Innovation in the West
seems to be a never-ending, self-transforming process.
Self-criticism, even more than innovation, is a defining
characteristic of the West. In most if not all non-Western
civilizations, pride and self love exclude self-criticism or at least
the criticism of one=92s civilization as such. A true Muslim or Chinese
scholar cannot be defined as a true Chinese or a true Muslim by being
critical of his own world. Not so in the West.
The Western scholar remains perfectly legitimate when putting to death
Western values: there is no Chinese or Muslim Nietzsche claiming that
his own God is dead. Is there a Chinese or a Muslim Montaigne ready to
write that the =93Indian savages=94 may be wiser than us, as Montaigne did
in 16th century France?
Of course there must be some Chinese or Muslim Montaigne or Nietzsche,
but they would not be considered beacons of their civilizations. Self-
criticism, not self-love, and cultural relativism are the nuts and
bolts of the Western mindset.
The same goes with gender equality. This has not always been so. In
the ancient Greek, Jewish, and Christian religions, women were
perceived as inferior to men. But this notion has been contentious in
the West for centuries. Nowadays, gender equality has become the norm.
This is not the case in most non-Western civilizations. Some would
argue that gender equality is a consequence of the modernization
process, not of Westernization. This may be true, but the status of
women is clearly one issue that puts non-Western Muslims into
opposition to the West.
If we accept the above definition of the West as a mindset, this
leaves open three major questions: can the East be modernized without
being Westernized? Where do we draw the line between West and East?
Will the West remain Western?
So far, there is no case in history of non-Western modernization; the
discourse on Asian values, initially started in Singa****e, is
basically a political discourse. It is after retooling their mindset
towards innovation and self-criticism that Asian countries have become
modern.
This does not make them less Asian. Contem****ary Koreans or Japanese
remain fully Korean or Japanese but are closer to a Westerner than
they would be to their own ancestors. Similarly, a modern Egyptian or
a modern Saudi will be more on par with a French or an American than
they would be with an ancient Arab.
Does this Westernization make the Egyptian or the Saudi less authentic
Arabs? Such a debate does take place within all Eastern societies,
which leads us to the real clash of civilizations: all societies today
are fragmented between Westernizers and non-Westernizers. This clash
within civilizations on what modernization means is more significant
than Huntington=92s alleged conflict between geographical entities.
The controversy on the essential meaning of modernization, also known
as an identity crisis, does impact Western countries as well. Vast
groups who live in the West, Western and non-Western fundamentalists,
fight the unending Westernization process in the name of tradition.
Many would like to stop the engine by using various guises like
ecology or identity, but a Western society where you could not start
your day by asking =91What's new?=92 would not be Western any more.
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