Welcome to the second digital issue of Horizons – a monthly digest from the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program. To see the first issue, visit the website here.
Two important pieces were published over the Christmas break on Western Civilisation that we highly recommend you read. This piece by the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Jonathan Sacks on Alexis de Tocqueville and the limits of secularism appears in the January edition of Standpoint magazine.
And just before Christmas the ABC’s religion and ethics website published this speech by John Howard – “Western Civilisation Must be Defended”.
Europe’s debt problems are an old story
Like so many European leaders since, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse (who ruled between 405-367 BC) was addicted to spending. To fund his wars, he borrowed heavily from the inhabitants of Syracuse.
Eventually, he was unable to service the debt. Dionysius’ solution was simple. He confiscated all the coins in the city, under pain of death. Then he restamped the coins. One drachma instantly became two drachmas.
He returned the citizens’ money according to their original value, and pocketed the difference. It was now easy for him to pay off his debt. But doing so would have come at enormous cost. We don’t have price data for Ancient Syracuse, but Economics 101 teaches us that the inflation would have crippled the city’s economy.
Governments throughout history have had to figure out clever ways to avoid the consequences of their profligacy.
When they can’t, they default. Western history is littered with sovereign debt crises. Spain defaulted seven times in the nineteenth century. That was a record for Spain, but not much of one: the country had defaulted six times in the preceding three centuries. France defaulted eight times between 1558 and the French Revolution.
So there is nothing new about Europe’s troubles. Government over-spending is one of the great constants in the history of Western Civilisation. Like their compatriot Dionysius 2500 years earlier, today’s leaders of Greece thought they’d figured it out – that there was no reason for them to stop spending money they didn’t have.
But debts have to be paid off eventually. If the European debt crisis ends in the destruction of a currency, well, it won’t be the first time.
Reading, listening, watching
If you only read one book on the history of financial crises read this one published in 2009: This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. It’s excerpted in Foreign Policy here.
And if you read only one book on how governments cause financial crises and taxes cause revolutions, read For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization. Here’s a video of the IPA’s Tim Wilson speaking about that book.
Take the time to look at this article from 1994 by the Cato Institute on how excessive government killed Ancient Rome. (And maybe see Pompeii in person while you can – this article in the Art Newspaper is a disturbing look at the slow destruction of the ruins of that Roman city.)
How hard was it to actually put the King James Bible together? It took fifty people seven years, according to this fascinating article from December in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
You’ve probably read a lot about Christopher Hitchens since he died in December. But here’s one last thing that’s definitely worth it – a podcast by the free market economist Russ Roberts talking to Hitchens about the legacy of George Orwell.
We’ve had wonderful feedback about Wolfgang Kasper’s The Merits of Western Civilisation: An Introduction, which we sent to all IPA members and every member of parliament. If you’re not a member and you would like a copy, please contact Rachel Leigh at the Institute of Public Affairs on 03 9600 4744 or at rleigh@ipa.org.au.
Welcome to the first digital issue of Horizons – a monthly digest from the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program.
The Foundations of Western Civilisation Program is a joint project of the Institute of Public Affairs and Mannkal Economic Education Foundation. It seeks to reinvigorate an understanding of why our inheritance of liberty, representative democracy, religious toleration and free inquiry needs to be defended today.
Many supporters have asked us if they could be kept informed of intellectual debate surrounding Western Civilisation.
So at the start of each month, Horizons will introduce you to a carefully chosen selection of the best writing, podcasts, and videos on Western Civilisation, history and philosophy from around the world.
We hope you enjoy it and find something stimulating in each issue.
Freedom of speech in Western Civilisation
A US Supreme Court Judge described freedom of speech as “the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.” Free expression – along with the freedom of the press and freedom of conscience – is one of the most important inheritances of Western Civilisation.
It has been an enduring obsession of political thinkers since the trial of Socrates. Tacitus described freedom of speech as “when you are allowed to think what you please and to say what you think” – it was a central, fundamental attribute of the free Roman citizen.
The history of freedom of speech is the history of religious toleration and the growth of individual liberty.
So nothing has demonstrated the need for the IPA’s Foundations of Western Civilisation Program in recent times more than the attacks on freedom of speech we have seen in Australia over the last year.
From the Andrew Bolt case to the government’s media inquiry, we’ve discovered that Australian public intellectuals are more interested in talking about how freedom of speech should be limited than how it should be defended.
This just demonstrates their utter lack of historical awareness.
For thousands of years the giants of Western Civilisation sought to carve out a free space where individuals could express themselves. Those who would acquiesce to – even encourage – threats to freedom of speech are throwing one of our most central liberties away.
Reading, listening, watching
You can’t talk about freedom of speech without reading John Stuart Mill’s classic defence of free expression. It’s in Chapter II of his On Liberty – online here: “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion”. Here’s all the things IPA researchers have been sayingabout freedom of speech this year.
“Natural law” is one of the most important concepts in the development of the Western mind. But not many Australians understand what it means. These two podcasts from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in June are excellent introductions: the first by Professor J. Budziszewski, “An Introduction to Classical Natural Law”, and the second by Professor Robert P. George on “Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity”.
This video from the Acton Institute is excellent too. Lawrence Reed talks about the importance of character in a free society. And here’s Jonathan Sacks in Standpoint on why social cohesion is so important to Western Civilisation.
Here’s another good piece in Standpoint on the religious roots of liberal societies.
The philosopher Kenneth Minogue reviewed Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience in the Wall Street Journal.
And we enjoyed this interview at New Books in History (one of our favourite podcasts) on the way Tacitus’ Germania had been interpreted, used, and misused throughout history.
This year we held our first Foundations of Western Civilisation symposium, with fantastic speeches from a wide variety of high-profile thinkers and commentators, including historian Andrew Roberts. Click here to see videos of all presentations from the symposium.
The Institute of Public Affairs and Mannkal Economic Education Foundation are excited to present The Merits of Western Civilisation: An Introduction by Wolfgang Kasper. Professor Kasper’s work is the second in Monographs of Western Civilisation series.
What is Western Civilisation, and why does it matter? In Th e Merits of Western Civilisation: An Introduction, Professor Wolfgang Kasper examines the origins and meanings of Western Civilisation.
Kasper takes readers through the most important thinkers of the Western Civilisation tradition, and emphasises the importance of the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece and the role played by Christianity in the development of the West.
Th e Merits of Western Civilisation is a provocative and informing overview of Western Civilisation and its future, both for Australia and the world.
To obtain a copy of this exciting monograph, contact Rachel Leigh at the Institute of Public Affairs on 03 9600 4744 or at rleigh@ipa.org.au.
In Decadence: Decline of the Western World (trailer here) Australian journalist and television presenter Pria Viswalingam does an excellent job at identifying the symptoms of Western decline. The breakdown of the family unit, the degradation of public debate and national service, declining standards in education and collapsing faith in previously vital public institutions like the church are all illustrations of civilisational decline that few would disagree with.
Decadence and Viswalingam are on weaker ground when they attempt to identify the causes of this decline. The film’s central thesis is that “rampant individualism” and consumer capitalism are largely to blame for the West’s impending collapse. Whilst acknowledging that capitalism and the protestant ethic are largely responsible for the West’s unparalleled wealth today, the film suggests that modern capitalism is insufficiently regulated and has many negative consequences. [click to continue…]
