Eestern Tradition

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IS THERE A WESTERN TRADITION?Author(s): Arnold J. ToynbeeSource: World Affairs, Vol. 111, No. 3 (Fall, 1948), pp. 151-156Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20664606

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WORLD

AFFAIRS

PAX

OMNIUM RERUM

TRANQUILLITAS

ORDINIS

WORLD AFFAIRS

welcomes all constructive

comments

and

proposals

for

world

order and

peace.

It neither

sponsors

nor

censors

any

of

the

views

expressed

by

the

writers.

IS

THEREA

WESTERN TRADITION?*

BY

ARNOLD

J.

TOYNBEE

Teacher

and

author in

the

field

of

History.

Among

his

recent

books

are

A

STUDY

OF

HISTORY

and

CIVILIZATION

ON

TRIAL

'Is there

a

Western

tradition?'

The

question

is

arousing

deep

feelings

among

Western

people;

and

this,

I

believe,

is

a new

thing

that has

happened

within

our

own

lifetime.

Thirty

years

ago,

before theRussian

Revolution,

people

in

the

West

were

not

asking

themselves

whether

there

was

such

a

thing

as

a

Western

civilisation

with

a

way

of

life

of

its

own.

At that

time,

we

Westerners

were

wholly

ab

sorbed

in

domestic

quarrels

inside

our

Western

family,

we were

not

bothering

much

about

our

relations

with the

rest

of

the

world,

for,

though

we

were

and

are a

rather

small

minority

of

the human

race,

at

that

time

we were

undisputedly

top

dog.

We

just

took

it

for

granted

that

the

rest

of

mankind

had

to

submit

to

being

dominated

by

the

West,

and

that

this was

a

blessing

for

them.

What

has

made

this

question

about

a

'Western

tradi

tion'

such

a

live

one

in

theWest since

then?

Well,

I

sup

pose

we

have

had

a

great

shock. For

about 250

years,

down

to

1917,

we

Westerners had assumed

that the

rest

of

the world

was

at

our

feet,

and

that

it

was

going

to

stay

there. And

then,

suddenly,

our

Western

supremacy

was

challenged

by

a

great

non-Western

community.

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

AGAINST WESTERN IDEALS

Before

that,

ever

since

the time

of

Peter the

Great,

the

*By

permission

of the British

Broadcasting-

Co.

and Mr.

Toynbee.

151






152 World

Affairs,

Fall,

1948

Russians

had,

for

the

most

part,

taken

Western

life and

thought

as

their

pattern.

And

then,

all

at

once,

they

be

gan

to

denounce

the

West

and all

its

works.

They

even

launched

a

counter-offensive,

and

started

the

same

kind

of

missionary

work in the

West

that

we

Westerners have

been

carrying

on

for

the

last

few centuries

in

Russia,

India,

China,

and

the

rest

of

the

world.

This

Russian

propa

ganda

has

not

been

altogether

unsuccessful:

and

that

has

given

us

a

fright.

This is

not

the

first

time

that

we

Westerners

have

found

ourselves

in

danger

of

this

kind. Between 300

and 400

years

ago,

there used

to

be

cases

of Western

Christians

'turning

Turk,'

as

in

our

time

we see

Western

believers

in

free

enterprise

'turning

Communist';

and

though

then,

as

now,

the number

of the

converts

was

not

large,

and

there

were

no

Muslim

propaganda

cells

inside

our

West

ern

body

social,

our

ancestors

took

those

defections

tragi

cally,

as we are

taking

our

similar

losses

today.

Here is a

point

which we Westerners often overlook, I

think. This

upsetting

experience

of

being

bombarded

by

a

foreign

way

of

life,

and

losing

converts

to

it,

is

not

an

experience

that

has

been confined

to

us.

We

are

being

put

through

it

now

by

the

Russians,

and

our

ancestors

were

put

through

it

by

the

Turks.

But

what

we

Westerners

have

suffered

in

this

way

at

the

hands

of Turkish

Muslims

and

Russian Communists

is

mild

compared

to

what

we

have been

inflicting

on

the

Russians,

Muslims and

Hindus, Chinese, Japanese.

and

Africans,

and

all

other

non-Western

peoples

in

the

Old

World

and

the

New in

modern

times.

The

very

moderate

dose

of

the

same

upsetting

treatment

that the Russians

have

been

giving

us

during

the

last

thirty

ears may

help

us

faintly

to

imagine

what the terrific

impact

of

the

West

has

meant

for

the

rest

of

mankind

during

these

last

three

centuries.

'Is there

a

Western

tradition?'

The

other

fellows,

who

have

been

hit

by it,

certainly

believe that there is.

We

Westerners have not a common name for ourselves; we

did

not

need

one

so

long

as we were

securely

top

dog

and

were

not

on

the

defensive.

But the Eastern

orthodox

Christians and the Muslims do

have

a name

for

us.






World

Affairs,

Fall,

1948

153

They

call

us

'the

Franks,'

because the

Franks

were

the

dominant

people

in

an

empire embracing

the

larger

part

ofWestern

Christendom,

which Charles

the

Great

put

together

round

about

A.D.

800.

In

practice,

today,

the

name

'Franks,'

as

the

Orientals

use

it,

means

all Catholics

and

all

Protestants.

In

fact,

religion

enters

into this

for

eign

definition of

our

Western

society;

and

I

think

that

makes

sense,

because

every

civilisation

has

religious

foun

dations which cannot be conjured away by forgetting

or

denying

or

concealing

their

existence-as

I

expect

the Rus

sians

will

find

out

as

well

as

we.

Let

us

test

this Oriental belief

in the

existence of

a

pe

culiar

Western

tradition

by

some

familiar

piece

of

history.

Take

the

Reformation:

that

is

certainly

an

event

in

the

history

f

England,

Scotland,

and

Ireland;

Spain

and Por

tugal;

France, Germany,

and

Italy;

the Low

Countries,

and

Scandinavia;

Poland

and

Hungary.

But

when

we

pass

on

from Poland into Russia,

or

from

Hungary

into

Serbia,

or

from

Spain

into

Morocco,

we

do

not

find the

Reformation

happening

in

these

other

countries,

too.

There is

a

definite,

geographical

line

at which

this

West

ern

event

called the

Reformation

came

to

a

stop.

Turn

the

page

of

history

from

the

sixteenth

to

the

eighteenth

century,

and

you

will

find

wigs

and

powder

stopping

at

the

same

line

as

the

Reformation.

Work the

line

out

for

yourselves,

and

you

will find

that,

even now

that

our

Western

world

has

expanded

out

of

Western

Europe

into

the

Americas,

and

the

antipodes,

it includes

only

a

small

part

of

the earth's

surface,

and

a

still smaller

fraction

of mankind.

The

Reformation,

then,

is

one case

of

an

experience

shared

by

all

Western

people,

but

peculiar

to

them

as

dis

tinct

from

the

rest

of

the world.

A

common

experience,

yes

But

not

one

that

has

given

birth

to

common

princi

ples

or

common

ideals

Catholics and Protestants

are

equally

Western,

yet

they

are

poles

apart

on

issues

of

the

utmost importance:forexample, thecrucial issue between

authoritarianism

nd individualism.

It is

difficult-perhaps impossible-to

find

any

set

of

principles, ideals,

or

practices

that

re

accepted

and

agreed,






154 World

Affairs,

Fall,

1948

without

dispute,

by

all

Westerners

as

being

the

hall-mark

of

the

Western

tradition.

What

are

our

Western

hall-marks?

Let

us

run

through

the

main

provinces

of social life.

In

religion,

is

it

Cath

olicism

or

Protestantism

that

represents

the

genuine

West

ern

tradition?

It

can

hardly

be

both,

and

we

have been

disputing

for

more

than

four

centuries

now

without

being

able

to

agree

which

of the

two

is the

true

Western

religious

faith.

In

politics,

is

it

autocracy,

parliamentarianism,

or

mili

tary

dictatorship?

The

English-speaking

peoples

always

assume

without

discussion

that

parliamentarianism

is

the

true

political

faith

of

Western

man.

Yet,

in

the modern

Western

world,

the

states

in

which

parliamentary

govern

ment

has been

a

going

concern

have

always

been

in

a

minority.

If

one

is

to

decide

the

question democratically by

count

ing heads, the main line of ourWestern political tradition

is

represented,

not

by

the Mother of

Parliaments,

but

either

by

an

old-fashioned

autocracy

in

the

style

of

King

Phillip

II,

of

King

Louis

XIV,

or

by

a

revolutionary

mili

tary

dictatorship

in the

style

of

Cromwell, Napoleon,

Mussolini,

or

Hitler.

And

now

what

about

economics,

which

arouse

stronger

feelings

in modern

Western hearts

than

ever

politics

or

religion?

In

economics,

is it

Socialism

that

is the

true

Western

faith,

or

is it

the

rival

economic

system

that is

called 'free

enterprise'

by

its

friends

and

'capitalism'

by

its

enemies?

Free

enterprise

is

certainly

Western;

but,

then,

so

is

Socialism,

too;

yes,

and

Marxian Socialism

as

well

as

other

brands.

Where did Marx

get

his

doctrine

and

his

programme?

Such

things

are

not

invented

in

a

vacuum.

Marx created

Marxism

under the

painful impression

of

industrial

con

ditions

inVictorian

England.

And where

did

the

prophet

himself

foretell

that his

social

revolutionwould

break

out

first? In Russia? Marx never thought of that. The

Marxian

revolution

was

to

be the

appropriate

retort to the

social

evils of the

Western industrial

revolution;

and

Marx had

no

doubt

that

England,

the

pioneer

industrial






156

World

Affairs,

Fall,

1948

to

the

majority

of

mankind?

If

you

put

that

question

to

non-Westerners,

most

of

them,

I

believe,

would

say

that there

was one

quite

distinctive

thing

about the

West:

our

uncanny

genius

for

technology.

Here

we

have,

per

haps,

hit

on

something

that

is

common

to

Westerners

of

every

creed.

This

special

turn

that

we

have

for

applying

scientific

knowledge

to

practical

affairs

is

the

source

of

our enormous

material

power.

It

is

the

talisman

that has

made

us

mas

ters

of

the

modern

world.

And,

whatever

may

be

the

out

come

of

Russia's

challenge

to

our

present

Western

su

premacy,

we

may

be

fairly

sure

that,

in

any

event,

the

world

is

going

to

remain

at

the

mercy

of Western tech

nology.

What will

our

Western

tradition look like

in

retrospect,

in

some

future

age

when

our

Western

society,

the

Russian

society,

and

the other

now-living

civilisations

are

all

long

since

dead and

buried?

One

thing, think,

can

be

fore

told already about the ultimate effectsof ourWestern

technology:

these

effects

are

going

to

be

extreme,

whether

for

good

or

evil.

If

our

characteristic Western

gift

proves

to

have been

a

blessing

for

mankind,

it

will

be

a

great

blessing; and,

if

a

curse,

a

great

curse.

If

things

go

well,

the

epitaph

of

history

on

the

Franks

may

run:

'Here

lie

the technicians

who

united

mankind,'

and

if

things

go

badly:

'Here

lie

the technicians

who

exterminated

the human race.'

What

are

the hundred

years

of the

history

of the

ma

chine

compared

with the

two

hundred

thousand

years

of

the

history

of

man?

It

was

only

yesterday

that

we

began

to

pitch

our

camp

in

this

country

of laboratories nd

power

stations,

that

we

took

possession

of this

new,

this

still

un

finished, ousewe live in.Everything roundus isnew and

different-our

concerns,

our

working

habits,

our

relations

with

one

another.

Antoine

de Saint

Exup~ry

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