By Matthew Clark
When most individuals hear the word humility they relate it's meaning to religious use. In this context humility is an admission of human unworthiness before the presence of God. There is another context for humility. In a human relationship humility means a willingness to admit the possibility of erronous deduction in one's conclusions, as well as an attempt to seek context when analyzing someone else's actions, and viewpoints.
Traditionally humility, as long as it was sincere, has been seen as morally just, as well as a useful tool in developing functional strategies to understanding others. An example of this fact was the strenuous efforts of thinktanks, and governments, to understand their adversaries during the cold war. From comprehension of the motives of other political leaders, be they friend, or adversary, came a greater ability to understand them, and often to successfully predict what actions they would take in certain situations.
That western institutions performed this function with some success during the cold war era, is verified by the fact that they outlasted the Soviet Union, while avoiding the calamity of Thermonuclear War. Despite all the fallibilities of western institutions, their trait of humility, even a reliance on it, was a major ingredient of it's success!
Given this fact it is one of the most befuddling state of affairs that western governments, institutions, and culture at large, has abandoned such an efficient, attractive, characteristic, as that of humility!
There is no humility in contemporary western geopolitics. For instance over the centuries Russia has suffered repeated invasion from western great powers who used Poland, and Ukraine, as a military conduit, into their country. During the Second World War the death toll in the Soviet Union from the German invasion, once again conducted through Poland and the Ukraine, was at least 22 million people. Given this historical fact, a fact which was on the mind of President Kennedy when he sought a treaty between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. regarding nuclear weapons, it does not take much imagination to realize that moving western (NATO) military forces into Ukraine was a red flag Russia would never permit. Yet the present western political leadership displayed no such humility, as John Kennedy once had, As a result the world is witnessing a military conflict which has the potential to expand into a thermo nuclear holocaust!
There is no humility among western nations when they observe their own history. Our ancestors were not born into a perfect world. Far from it. In many cases the privations and superstitions they experienced are unimaginable by today's standards. Yet persevere they did, leaving us a better world. We give thanks to their efforts by criticizing their lack of perfection. This begs the question: How many of us are making this world a better place for our descendants?
Their is no humility in western recreation as professional athletes descend into pathetic displays of celebration at the most innocuous of performances. There is no humility in western media as individuals are demonized for holding opinions that run counter to the editorial policy of the particular media establishment in question. Incredibly there is no humility in western science, as to disagree with the established narrative, whatever it may be, is to be classified as anti-science.
There is a price for this lack of humility. It is decay, and decline! Everywhere in the world western institutions are shrinking in their credibility, with a shrinking influence as a result of this condition. This decline will not be arrested until that profound testament of character, humility, is re-established, in the western domain.
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