If we begin by appreciating the advice given by former First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton who said that it takes a village to raise a child, we’ll have no trouble seeing that it takes an entire humanity to raise a civilization that will endure.
But because raising a civilization is a lot more
complicated than raising a child, we take into account what Arnold Toynbee said
about civilizations in general. In fact, he held to the view that has been
cemented by the well known adage which asserts that necessity is the mother of
invention. That is, a civilization that has no incentive to overcome a hardship
will not make the effort to improve its lot, thus remain stagnant.
By contrast, a civilization that comes under repeated attacks
by neighbors, environmental degradation, natural catastrophes or the like will
perish and be forgotten, or will rise to the occasion and respond to the
threat. And this will be the kind of progress we see as representing the mark of
civilization.
Still, despite the difficulties we shall encounter as
we try to sort out what’s what, we go on to ask the most pertinent question of
our time: Who were the founding fathers and founding mothers of Western
Civilization?
To answer that
question, we begin by noticing that the name itself is a misnomer. That’s
because Europe is perceived to be Western whereas North Africa is perceived to
be Eastern. But a glance at the map of the world will show that the two fall
within the same longitudes. That is, in geographic terms, Greece in the north
and Egypt in the south line up almost perfectly. Also, Portugal in the north
and Morocco in the south line up almost perfectly.
This done, we study
the progress of human development as we specifically search for what might have
been the founding fathers and founding mothers of the Human Civilization that developed
from being a seed to become what is now called Western Civilization. The first
thing we notice in this realm is that civilizational influences began to move
from South to North such as from Egypt to Greece. They also moved from East to
West such as from the Mideast and the Far-East to Europe.
Thus, Europe which is
falsely considered to be Western, can be eliminated as being potentially the source
of Western Civilization. This leaves the rest of the ancient world as being the
Founding Fathers and Founding Mothers of Human Civilization which comprises
Western Civilization.
But why has it been
difficult to convince some people of those unquestionable geographic and
historical realities? Well, there are likely many reasons—anyone of which could
have motivated—some people with the wish to separate themselves from the others, thus
deny that there may have been any kind of ancient or modern affinity with them.
Because such attitude portends the start of fanaticism, we are pushed to
explore the role that Religion is playing in this saga.
The Jews say they
influenced Western Civilization because Judaism begot Christianity which is now
the predominant religion in Europe. They point out that Jesus, who is the
Founding Father of Christianity, was a Jew. What these people deliberately omit
is the reality that to escape the Jewish habit of killing babies, which is what
King Herrod the Jew was planning to do, Mary the mother of Jesus took him to
Egypt where he lived for 30 years before returning to Palestine where, for the
next 3 years, preached the peace and love he learned in Egypt. And what did the
Jews do to thank him? They demanded that he be crucified.
Does that episode represent a tenet of Western Civilization? Count me out.