Yesterday evening, at the Hanover Inn, a professor and his student engaged in an in-depth discussion about the dominance of Western civilization over the rest of the planet.
But the two did not sit on at an intimate table in a quiet corner of the Daniel Webster room, relaying their opinions over cups of coffee.
Rather, they sat side by side, facing a group of roughly 20, generally older members of the Hanover community and a handful of Dartmouth students.
The professor was Dr. Jeffrey Hart '51, English Professor Emeritus at the College, a distinguished author and a speechwriter for two presidents. The student was Dinesh D'Souza '83, also an author and a noted scholar of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
During the panel discussion, entitled "What's so Great About Western Civilization?" the two offered theories and arguments about what precipitated the West's relative dominance over world culture, and what such dominance means to both non-Western civilizations and to Westerners themselves.
Hart, the first speaker, argued that Western cultures' balance of knowledge and spirituality led to prosperous society. He cited philosopher Leo Strauss, who originated an idea known as the Athens and Jerusalem dialect.
According to Strauss, an individual has a choice between enriching his mind and relying upon reason -- as was emphasized in Athens during the time of the Ancient Greeks -- enriching his soul through the virtuous teachings of people of great insight, as was stressed in Biblical Jerusalem.
Western civilization has managed to do both in good measure, according to Hart.
"The ideal civilization of the West knows too much to be relatively skeptical ... but not enough to be absolutist," Hart said.
By contrast, Hart pointed to China, where a traditional emphasis on certain virtues and the lack of any similar emphasis on intellectual advancement led to a technologically stagnant way of life for centuries.
D'Souza, in his speech, argued that while certain institutions prized by the West -- science, democracy, and capitalism -- were instrumental in the civilization's success, many find the society to be lacking spiritually. Those Westerners embarking on a search to find spirituality often end up studying Eastern philosophy.
"Within the West, there is anxiety about the triumph of the West. This must be dealt with," he said.
D'Souza felt that the height of West's actualization of ideals such as self-authenticity and individualization came in the 1960s. Now, however, he contends that we are seeing "a debased version of a powerful idea."
According to D'Souza, the challenge facing Western, particularly American, culture today is how to create old values -- for instance, the stalwart ethics of Americans during the Great Depression -- during new circumstances.
D'Souza credited the administration of President George W. Bush with attempting to reinstill such values in American society, through programs such as aid to faith-based groups.
Hart blamed the relative lack of virtues on the collapse of the educational system and called for a restoration of a moral oral and offered the Ten Commandments as a prime example of such an order.
Hart said that the American educational system, in particular, has become "anarchic," and called for a return to a core curriculum. He took specific offense to the preponderance of "studies courses" -- classes that he said, focus on "victimology." He also referred to them as "crybaby courses."
Among Hart's suggestions to improve American education at the lower level was to disband teachers' unions.
Following the conclusion of both speeches, Hart and D'Souza entertained several questions from the audience. Discussions often took on a heated political tone and revealed partisan biases of both audience members and the speakers themselves.
One audience member, in response to D'Souza's praise of the Bush administration, claimed that the current President is actually dismissing what she said is a principal source of values -- the environment.
In a later question dealing with the issue of whether moral rectitude or academic achievement is more important in a U.S. President, Hart claimed that former President Clinton's sexual indiscretions could have provided perfect fodder for blackmail and thus posed a security risk.
"Hillary banned cigars from the White House. She forgot one," Hart quipped.
The panel discussion, held in the East Wheelock room of the Hanover Inn, was sponsored by the Hanover Review and Young America's Foundation.
