Yes, My Culture Is Better
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This week’s post is by contributor Timothy Wood.
We’re not immune to criticism in America. Nor undeserving. If you want to descend to the uttermost depths of our dark places, I can fill you in. I can tell you about the Sand Creek Massacre and the soldiers who carried the pubic hair of their Native victims as trophies as they drunkenly danced around a fire. I can tell you about the dolled-up house slaves who were raped long enough for their daughters to be woken, only so they could be raped next. The US is the only nation in history to unleash nuclear hellfire in anger. Even before that, we made a science out of erasing cities through more conventional means. It looks bad from above. Ask the airmen who came to their debriefings shaking and stinking of burnt flesh. It was worse on the ground for those unlucky enough to survive.
There are no saints here. We have death in our DNA and a résumé written in blood. We’re still better.
In the 21st century, we don’t kill people because we’re afraid that men’s fragile loins will turn them into rabid, sex-crazed animals upon seeing a woman’s uncovered hair. We don’t treat women like toddlers unable to dress themselves — as though if left to their own devices they’d show up in a swimsuit top, pajama bottoms, and one flip-flop. “Women are people” is an objectively better system. Lest you think I’m just picking on Islam, we also don’t persecute or kill our Muslim population, subjecting them to totalitarian intrusions, reeducation camps, forced labor, and death because of their religion. “Muslims are people” is an objectively better system.
Members of our political opposition parties don’t happen to keep falling out of windows to their death while we act like the rest of the world are blithering imbeciles who don’t see it for the dictatorial self-parody that it is. We’re arguing over who gets banned from Twitter, not who gets jailed and disappeared. That’s not just different; it’s better.
We think we’re divided, and in many ways, we are, but “And you are lynching negros” used to be a valid critique. Today, our hands shake as we turn the pages of our own history. When we think of Emmett Till, we are horrified and nauseated in unison. In as much as you are not, we’re better than you are, and you should feel bad. Our culture today is objectively better than it was back then.
This line is policed by thinking and feeling. The moral arc of history is bent by clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. This isn’t something I say often, but I’m on that hype train with the Jesus of Matthew 25. Depart from me you cursed ones, because I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was sick, racked in pain upon my bed, and I begged, and prayed, and pleaded that you’d come, but you didn’t.
We’re not perfect. Nobody is. I’ve written at great length about the things we should be ashamed about. Shame is important. Shame is sobering. Shame is motivating. Don’t let it consume you, because it can become crippling, but don’t shy away from it either.
I once took part in a Passover Seder. I still remember how awful the bitter herbs were. My 15-year-old self thought, “How bad can it be?” and boy oh boy was it bad. But it’s a reminder that the awful is vital. Nothing puts the good into perspective like experiencing the bad. The cost of failure can be grievous, but there is no more reliable teacher. On this score, we collectively have a PhD-level education in self-improvement.
The West has what Al-Qaeda would like to use in its cheap branding — literally “the foundation.” We have a foundation: the right to govern consecrated by the consent of the governed, personal autonomy, individual inviolability, and the norm that suffering is not only evil, but that we should work to minimize it. The point of this experiment isn’t to make a better country, but to make a better life. We’re not here for the greater good of the mother- or fatherland. We’re not beholden to some leader or purpose ordained by God. We’re here for us. We are the larger purpose. We all get one shot at this thing called life, and there are no takebacks or do-overs. “People are people” is an objectively better system.
As I sit on the front porch writing this, there are two kids in my house who aren’t ours. Their dad is divorced and going through a rough patch. We pick up the slack. Yes, we have an extra bed. Yes, you can have some ice cream. Yes, you are welcome here, and this is a safe place for you whenever you need one. For all of the teams we invent to be at each other’s throats, we forget that team-human is the only actual team. If you’re not on board, what the fuck are you even doing?
I don’t know exactly how, but despite all odds, the West has reached a place where we can be united in disgust over things like neglect, abuse, mass slaughter, and wanton bigotry. We might disagree on precisely what those concepts mean, but our baseline rises by the day. It took us a while, but this much at least we’ve learned. To borrow a phrase from Marcuse, there is somewhere in here the manifest will to resist the mature delinquency of a civilization. We coined the term “human rights.” We’ve done our fair share, but we coined the term “genocide” to make sure we stop. We read the Ten Commandments and had a few notes on the first draft. Don’t rape. Thou shalt not have slaves. Don’t fuck kids. Don’t exploit the less fortunate. Teach women to read. Don’t burn women because they somehow learned to read. Jealous gods, blasphemy, and idol worship don’t make the cut.
Progress is born out of not being satisfied. However far we have come, don’t let up, because comfortably coasting on previous generations is how societies fail. There’s blood on your scorecard. Some of that fell from people in your streets giving you rights. That’s part of your inheritance. Don’t you dare disrespect them by giving up the fight. “Better” is relative, and if you’re not careful, “worse” will sneak up on you.
See also: “The Paradox of Trashing the Enlightenment”
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