Darrell Castle talks about the advantages that Western Civilization has afforded us and how we always compare ourselves to those who we consider to have a higher standard of living than we do.

Transcription / Notes

MAYBE IT’S BETTER THAN WE THINK

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report.  Today is Friday, February 16, 2018, and on today’s Report I will be talking about some of the many advantages that we have in our world today. This is really just a continuation of my series of Reports on the advantages of Western Civilization and reasons why it should not be destroyed.

My inspiration for this story came from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona last week.  I was returning home to Memphis on Sunday so as usual the crowds, the airport security, the narrow seats, the endless lines all served to remind me that everything is bad today.  Everything just seemed so dark, gloomy, and depressing.  The final straw came in waiting for my luggage at the Memphis airport for 30 minutes while Tokyo Rose blasted out her relentless propaganda directly into my left ear from the CNN announcer on airport TV at baggage claim.

Today we are constantly reminded of just how terrible things really are.  All we read are stories about how all our politicians, business leaders, entertainers, and even the clergy, are  corrupt at best and at worst they are racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Nazis.  Very depressing indeed, but then I arrived home from the airport, picked up my copy of the Wall Street Journal and there it was; an article by Steven Pinker entitled “The Enlightenment is Working.”  In response then, I offer this report on some of the good things in our world most of which are the result of "Western Civilization".

I have often used the expression that a poor person in America today lives better than a Roman emperor lived in the 1st century and I will attempt to show you why, thanks to Western civilization, that statement is still true.

From the Wall Street Journal, “For all their disagreements, the left and the right concur on one thing: The world is getting worse…They look back to various golden ages when America was great, blue-collar workers thrived in unionized jobs, and people found meaning in religion, family, community and nature.”  We pine away, in other words, for the good old days that never existed or were even worse.

Let’s look at and attempt to measure human achievement over time, over decades, and centuries.  We don’t measure our current condition by saying we are better off than ancient Romans, however, because this is 2018 America not, 1st century Rome.  We can, however, look at some numbers as a guide, for example;  In the U.S. just three decades ago, our annual homicide rate was 8.5 per 100,000 and now it is 5.3. Per 100,000.   Eleven percent of Americans fell below the poverty line 30 years ago, and today only three percent do.

In fact, the bottom half of American society today lives in relative abundance once reserved for the very top.  Before air conditioning, heads of industry and even Presidents lived in sweltering heat like everyone else.  Today 80% of poor households enjoy air-conditioning.  Through the 1930’s only the rich had an automobile but today 75% percent of poor households have at least one car, truck or both.  Just a short time ago TV was a luxury for the very affluent, and even for them only a couple of poor quality channels.  Today virtually all poor households have at least one television,  40% own TV’s with plasma screens, and two-thirds have cable or satellite.

Half of the poor own a personal computer and virtually all have cell phones.  The search to obtain food once occupied most of the spare time of people but today the poor have more of it than they need.  Obesity was once a sign of luxury, but today it is a sign of poverty.

It’s not just America either because, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, “The world is giving peace a chance.