Bush banishes Press

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“Western Civilization” is traditionally associated with a materialist view of human beings, an optimism about their progress through education and science, and a generally utilitarian approach to society and ethics. It is also sometimes associated with democratic and liberal governance - misleadingly, since both orthodox Fascism and Communism are born of this viewpoint.

However, since the end of the twentieth century, after two world wars and fifty years of potential nuclear conflict, the concept of progress has come into ill repute. In this environment “Eastern” thought – which is most closely identified with pessimism,and expressed by European thinkers such as Schopenhauer, became common in the “West” during 20th century. Likewise, the ideals of the enlightenment [namely a belief in secular rational progress] were the prime in post-war Third World [this trend, however, would seem to have been reversed in the last two decades].

Since we are influenced by values which can be said to be both “Eastern” and “Western” our worldviews are as much a product of class, age, and experience as the geographical location one happens to find oneself in.