What do we love about our civilization?

What works really well?

What is worth preserving and defending?

What can be better?

What makes you really proud of your country?

How can we feel good about the West when so much is wrong?

What makes you feel embarrassed or ashamed about Western culture?

Consider an individual person. Should we hate ourselves, deny our identity and focus continuously on our flaws? No. That would be unhealthy, a recipe for depression, self-harm and failure. It is also maladaptive to be arrogant, narcissistic or chauvinistic. It is desirable for a person to have a healthy degree of self-respect, self-love, self-acceptance and self-confidence.

So it goes for groups. We are a social animal. We are members of families, communities, countries, a civilization and all humanity. All groups, such as a team, company, regiment, professional group, hospital, city or Western Civilization have a group consciousness. It is hardwired into our tribal, territorial nature. Groups are conscious just like a beehive, rainforest or pack of wild hunting dogs. It is a healthy thing for a group to have a clear consciousness of itself and other groups. It is good for a group to have a healthy degree of self-confidence though not arrogance. It is good to have self-belief though not contempt for others. It is good for a group to be cohesive though not oppressive. A group needs to have healthy boundaries. It must be clear who is a member and who is not and there must be an effective way of regulating membership. A successful group has a clear ethos and good morale.

We should believe in our civilization but be humble about its shortcomings and failures. We should be confident in asserting our beliefs while not needing to vilify or disrespect others. We should be comfortable enough to assert what is right and wrong, true and false, desirable and undesirable.