1 00:00:02,100 --> 00:00:08,100 Do you think the United States and Western Europe are made up of imperialist, colonialist, 2 00:00:08,100 --> 00:00:15,660 resource-exploiting, greedy, grasping, brown-skin-hating people whose values are not worth defending? 3 00:00:15,660 --> 00:00:19,140 If you think this question is absurd and that no one thinks this way, 4 00:00:19,140 --> 00:00:21,400 you would be very much mistaken. 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:22,720 Many people do. 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:27,600 And what’s even more disturbing, many of these people were born and live in the West. 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:31,560 In other words, they have come to despise their own culture. 8 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:35,359 This thinking is the product of a doctrine widely taught in our schools. 9 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:40,140 It’s known as multiculturalism, the belief that all cultures are equal. 10 00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:44,920 Or to put it another way, no culture’s values, art, music, political system, 11 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,560 or literatureare better or worse than any other. 12 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:50,580 But is this really true? 13 00:00:50,580 --> 00:00:56,100 Some years ago, Nobel-prize winning novelist Saul Bellow created a major controversy when 14 00:00:56,100 --> 00:01:01,699 he said, “Find me the Tolstoy of the Zulus, or the Proust of the Papuans, and I would 15 00:01:01,700 --> 00:01:03,660 be happy to read him.” 16 00:01:03,660 --> 00:01:06,340 For this, Bellow was accused of racism. 17 00:01:06,340 --> 00:01:08,020 The charge was nonsense. 18 00:01:08,030 --> 00:01:13,299 Bellow wasn’t saying that the Zulus and Papuans are incapable of producing great novelists. 19 00:01:13,300 --> 00:01:16,260 He was saying that, as far as he knew, they hadn’t. 20 00:01:16,260 --> 00:01:21,560 But just by raising the possibility that some cultures have contributed more than others, 21 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:25,220 he violated the chief tenet of multiculturalism. 22 00:01:25,220 --> 00:01:31,900 More recently, President Donald Trump expressed a similar sentiment in Warsaw, Poland. 23 00:01:31,900 --> 00:01:33,360 “We write symphonies. 24 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:38,759 We pursue innovation…We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech 25 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:44,600 and free expression…We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success… 26 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:50,900 That is who we are…Those are the priceless ties that bind us together…as a civilization.” 27 00:01:50,900 --> 00:01:55,760 For this, Trump was roundly condemned by the multiculturalists. 28 00:01:55,770 --> 00:01:59,889 How could he say these things, one writer wrote, “as if these were unique qualities 29 00:01:59,889 --> 00:02:06,740 to white-dominated nations, instead of universal truths of the human race across all cultures.” 30 00:02:06,740 --> 00:02:12,260 Here’s the problem: Are values such as innovation, rule of law, free expression and women’s 31 00:02:12,260 --> 00:02:16,120 empowerment equally held across all cultures? 32 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:21,380 If all cultures are equal, how does one account for the fact that, for the last 500 years, 33 00:02:21,380 --> 00:02:27,180 it has been one culture—the culture of the West, and now of America—that has shaped the world? 34 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,520 Multiculturalists explain it in terms of oppression. 35 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:35,760 Western civilization, they say, became so powerful because it is so evil. 36 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:41,240 The study of Western civilization, they insist, should focus on colonialism and slavery– 37 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,400 the unique mechanisms of Western oppression. 38 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,360 But colonialism and slavery are not uniquely Western at all. 39 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:49,860 They are universal. 40 00:02:49,860 --> 00:02:53,640 The British conquered India and ruled it for 300 years. 41 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:58,780 But before the British, the Persians, the Mongols, the Muslims, and Alexander the Great 42 00:02:58,780 --> 00:03:02,920 had done exactly same thing - conquered large parts of India. 43 00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:07,780 Indeed, the British were the sixth or seventh colonial invader to occupy India. 44 00:03:07,780 --> 00:03:11,040 As for slavery, it has existed in every culture. 45 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:16,800 It was prevalent in ancient China, in ancient India, in Greece and Rome, and in Africa. 46 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:21,960 American Indians practiced slavery long before Columbus set foot here. 47 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:27,600 What is uniquely Western, in fact, is not slavery, but the abolition of slavery. 48 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:33,460 And what distinguishes the West from all other cultures are the institutions of democracy, 49 00:03:33,460 --> 00:03:35,540 capitalism, and science. 50 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:41,640 These institutions developed because of a peculiar dynamism of Athens and Jerusalem– 51 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,180 a synthesis of classical reason and Judeo-Christian morality. 52 00:03:46,180 --> 00:03:51,800 And it is these institutions, I believe, that comprise the source of Western strength 53 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:56,200 and explain the West’s long-standing dominance in the world. 54 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:01,560 The West’s greatest strength is not merely its military power, but also the unparalleled 55 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,220 power of its ideas and institutions. 56 00:04:05,220 --> 00:04:06,800 But what about America? 57 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:11,400 If America is a nation of immigrants -- mostly non-white immigrants -- doesn’t that, 58 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,340 by definition, make it a multicultural society? 59 00:04:15,340 --> 00:04:16,100 No. 60 00:04:16,100 --> 00:04:18,900 America is a multi-ethnic society. 61 00:04:18,900 --> 00:04:22,480 We don’t want it to be a multicultural society. 62 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:24,320 I’m an immigrant from India. 63 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,660 My wife is an immigrant from Venezuela. 64 00:04:26,660 --> 00:04:32,900 Despite our differences of ethnic background, we have both assimilated to the unique values 65 00:04:32,900 --> 00:04:37,610 of America -- the values embodied in our Constitution and our laws. 66 00:04:37,610 --> 00:04:39,240 The pursuit of happiness. 67 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,180 The American Dream. 68 00:04:41,180 --> 00:04:48,400 So, no -- the United States and Western Europe are not made up of imperialist, colonialist, 69 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,180 resource-exploiting, greedy, grasping, brown-skin-hating people. 70 00:04:53,180 --> 00:05:00,940 Our values are worth defending -- not just because they are ours, but because they are good. 71 00:05:00,940 --> 00:05:05,360 I’m Dinesh D’Souza for Prager University.