A New Case for the West

[Valin]

National Review

Stanley Kurtz

March 28, 2023

More than a tribulation for America, woke is tearing the West apart. British universities once mocked American political correctness. No longer. Nowadays, woke is on offense at Oxford, Cambridge, and throughout the U.K., where traditionalist Brits are frustrated by the Conservative Party’s reluctance to resist. French politicos are pushing back somewhat more energetically than the British against woke, yet the ideology has secured a foothold in France. Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott slammed the country’s woke corporations a couple of months ago for making traditional Australia Day celebrations optional. In short, no place is safe.

If the West is pervasively afflicted by woke, however, the West itself is the cure. That is, if wokeness is about delegitimizing, undermining, and ultimately replacing the history and governing principles of the West, recapturing and celebrating the core Western story is the way to fight back.

That’s what British (small “c”) conservatives are doing by way of The West, a new six-part documentary defending the West and retelling its story for our time. The documentary, written and directed by Marc Sidwell, can be freely accessed via the YouTube channel of the New Culture Forum (scroll down to the bottom left for the first episode, and for episode updates). My EPPC colleague George Weigel and I were interviewed by Sidwell, and we appear at various points in the series. The first episode went up this past Sunday, and a new episode will be posted every week, on Sunday.

The New Culture Forum, for which Marc Sidwell works, is a kind of cross between National Review and Fox News. Or better, NCF is like a television channel run by a British version of NR. Ideologically, New Culture Forum and NR are quite similar. In fact, Sidwell got in touch with Weigel and me after reading NR’s December 2021 special issue, “A Defense of the West,” in which we both appeared. Instead of op-eds featuring takes on the day’s news, however, New Culture Forum (NCF) is built around a webpage filled with videos. (Videos commenting on the most recent developments appear at the bottom left of the homepage). NCF’s videos feature regular commenters (such as Sidwell) who discuss the latest U.K. culture-war dust ups, interview authors who break with woke orthodoxy, and speak with the couple who just started Britain’s first classical Christian school.

(Snip)

[Valin]

Mar 26, 2023
The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and  why our culture is worth defending.

(Snip)

[Valin]

4/2/2023

The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and  why our culture is worth defending.

Episode 2: The Christian Revolution
“These that have turned the world upside-down are come hither also!” In Episode 2, Marc Sidwell traces the influence of Christianity on the West, from its shocking arrival in Europe, to its encounter with Roman power and its adoption by the post-Roman barbarian world of the Franks and Saxons.

The importance of women in spreading the faith gets particular attention – from Saint Photina to Queen Bertha of Kent and the remarkable story of Bathilde, slave turned liberator. Christianity’s revolutionary doctrines emphasised individual choice in line with god-given reason, and a spirit of moral equality that raised up the low and the weak – transforming Western society.

[Valin]

Apr. 9 2023

The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and why our culture is worth defending.

Episode 3: The Rule of Law The West is a place where even kings must kneel before the law. Starting with the scourging of King Henry II for the murder of St Thomas a Becket, this episode explores how the West's uniquely decentralised and distributed structure unleashed human possibility.

The competition between Western nations and the conflicting power centres within, including between church and state, created spaces in which shocking new ideas, projects and inventions could emerge and take hold. But it was the power of law to hold even kings and emperors to account – symbolised in the sealing of Magna Carta – which was the greatest secret of Western success.

[Valin]

Apr. 16 2023

The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and  why our culture is worth defending.

Episode 4: Our Dangerous Inventions From the beginning, the West was technically innovative, embracing water mills to compensate for its lack of slave labour.

This episode explores the story of how the ingenious West took that to new heights. We travel from the rational vision of creation offered by Christianity to the mechanical clocks and glass lenses of the Middle Ages, to the revolutionary discoveries of Isaac Newton and his successors.

But the West’s dangerous inventions also upset established truths and leave us with the hardest question of all: how should we use the terrifying powers we have unlocked?

[Valin]

Apr. 30 2023

The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and  why our culture is worth defending.

Episode 5: How Did The West REALLY Get So Rich?

Beginning with the age of exploration, this episode plunges into the West’s tumultuous and at times traumatic expansion out of Europe. From the accidental discovery of the Americas to the British Empire’s ending of the slave trade, Marc Sidwell offers a nuanced account of the West’s imperial and colonial phase. He also demolishes the persistent myth that slavery and plunder made the West rich, revealing instead the real answer: economic growth powered by industrial capitalism.

New episodes of The West premiere weekly, here on our YouTube channel:

[Valin]

May 7 2023

The West is the New Culture Forum's landmark six-part documentary series exploring the history, achievements and genius of Western civilisation. Inspired by legendary TV programmes such as Civilisation, Kenneth Clark's 1969 masterpiece, The West is a bold reminder of who we are -- and why our culture is worth defending.

Episode 6: Is The West History?

It has become easy, almost tempting to imagine the West in decline. In this concluding episode, Marc Sidwell argues that the West’s distributed, individual energy keeps it vibrant and capable of reinvention – so long as it does not lose touch with its own roots.

The episode traces the two paths taken by the Enlightenment to illustrate the point. One path rejected Western tradition and led to totalitarianism, gulags and mass death. The other, consciously rooted in the Western past, produced the American dream, peace and plenty.