How the West Was Lost — My Notes

Expounding on my poem published in Illumination

Thank you for reading How the West Was Lost.

I would like to explain this poem a bit. The thrust of the argument I make here is that the inditement of the West, and America in particular, as a unique evil in history is a major mistake. I’m defining “the West” as the collection of societies that have embraced liberal democracy.

Slavery, and all other forms of human rights violations have been a part of the human story for as long as we have lived amongst each other. However, it was the West, in its application of Enlightenment ideals that upheld the individual as sovereign.

It would no longer be kings who have divine rights, but it would be ordinary human beings, regardless of the their societal position who would hold ultimate power over their own destinies. At least that was the stated goal.

To my knowledge, the West was unique in this endeavor. In fact, it was the West who was the first civilization in history not only to reject slavery as immoral, but to reject it so thoroughly that it was made illegal.

Of course, various forms of injustice and oppression continued after the dawn of modern liberal democracy. But this, I argue, is not peculiar to the West or the United States. It…