day no. 17,497: shame faced

"We have deliberately neglected this great heritage of high national sentiment. We have made our public schools the strongest walls against a whisper of the honour of England. And we have had our punishment in this strange and perverted fact that, while a unifying vision of patriotism can ennoble bands of brutal savages or dingy burghers, and be the best thing in their lives, we, who are--the world being judge--humane, honest, and serious individually, have a patriotism that is the worst thing in ours. What have we done, and where have we wandered, we that have produced sages who could have spoken with Socrates and poets who could walk with Dante, that we should talk as if we have never done anything more intelligent than found colonies and kick niggers? We are the children of light, and it is we that sit in darkness. If we are judged, it will not be for the merely intellectual transgression of failing to appreciate other nations, but for the supreme spiritual transgression of failing to appreciate ourselves." — G.K. Chesterton, A Defense of Patriotism

If western civilization falls, it won't be for a lack of interest in other cultures, it will be for a lack of commitment to our own. Our culture is the only one which can appreciate anything good other cultures may have to offer. Other cultures do not value other cultures. If diversity is to be maintained in any God-fearing way, it must be through a Christian society that upholds the ability to value others without forfeiting what makes any kind of varied appreciation possible.

We are not inferior to others in our talents and gifts, but we may be inferior in our love of our own culture. Other cultures know what they are about and they love what they have accomplished. Only ours is sheepish and sometimes even ashamed of what we have accomplished. And even then, it is only by the Christian metric that this shame is produced. Without Christendom, there is no shame in light of any abuses. This is proven by the lack of shame or apology offered from other, invading cultures who have no qualms about extinguishing Christendom from the face of the earth.