03/12/2026
If we want to understand ideas like free speech, equality, and the rule of law, we need to understand the long historical story behind them. These ideas did not appear out of nowhere. They developed over centuries—beginning with ancient Greece and Rome, shaped through Christian thought, refined during the Enlightenment, and carried into the modern world.
Our current culture often takes a highly critical stance toward Western civilization. Some of that criticism is justified. History is imperfect, and many institutions failed to live up to the ideals they proclaimed.
But there is also a danger in throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Western tradition is also the cradle of constitutional law, democratic governance, and the very concept that human beings should be equal before the law. Even if these principles were practiced imperfectly in the past, the fact that we continue striving to improve them today is itself the result of seeds planted over millennia.
I am from Europe, and I identify with European heritage. I sometimes feel compelled to push back against one-sided narratives. There is much to critique in Western history—but there is also immense beauty, intellectual richness, and a legacy of ideas that shaped the freedoms many of us now take for granted.
I was surprised to learn that many schools today barely teach the classical Western canon anymore. That feels like a mistake. How can we meaningfully criticize something we no longer understand? What exactly are we dismantling—and what are we replacing it with?
Criticism is healthy. But it must be informed criticism.
So I encourage people to dive into the great works of Western thought—philosophy, literature, history. Share them with your family. Read them with curiosity and humility.
Before we deconstruct a tradition, we should first understand it deeply enough to appreciate what it gave us.
Perhaps then we can both honor what was good and improve what was flawed—without forgetting the foundations that made our modern ideals possible.
