英语专业晨读美文-文化篇 2 Western Civilization II

[00:03.99]Western Civilization Faces a Stark 1 Choice Ⅱ

[00:07.93]Economic Growth

[00:11.42]The west's stunning 2 economic advance

[00:14.02]over the past 1000 years, and especially the last 200 years,

[00:18.76]has made mankind an ecological 3 success and the west dominant 4.

[00:23.63]Victories over hunger and disease are unprecedented 5.

[00:27.45]Yet, if non-western countries eventually reached

[00:31.58]western consumption levels, the damage to the environment

[00:35.13]would be multiplied 12 times. The planet cannot cope with that.

[00:39.40]Happily, a new factor is emerging—

[00:42.58]the “personalised economy”,

[00:44.79]driven by imagination and intellect,

[00:47.61]not capital and hierarchy 6.

[00:49.69]Growth today can be increasingly “weightless”—

[00:53.07]we consume software and services rather than hunks of metal.

[00:56.93]In the last century the US economy grew to

[01:00.13]20 times its earlier size, but the weight

[01:03.17]of output stayed roughly the same.

[01:05.36]Averting ecological suicide requires growth

[01:09.30]using far fewer finite resources.

[01:11.94]Individualism

[01:13.63]This has always been the west's most striking characteristic.

[01:17.76]Now many inside the west are worried by individualism.

[01:21.75]Our highly atomistic society makes it easy to feel a failure.

[01:26.51]Every civilization has had self-made people.

[01:30.25]Ours is the first to foster millions

[01:33.59]of self-destroyed people.

[01:35.31]Yet selfish individualism is a recent heresy 7,

[01:38.66]a contradiction. Historically,

[01:41.62]individualism has advanced higher standards

[01:44.29]of personal behavior, with community building,

[01:47.25]with leadership. We have stopped requiring that.

[01:50.83]If we do not demand truly responsible individualism,

[01:54.82]from our leaders, role models and ourselves,

[01:58.17]our civilization will disintegrate 8.

[02:00.80]Liberalism

[02:02.26]The greatest threat to the west comes from liberalism's decline

[02:06.22]and from the “liberal imperialists”

[02:09.31]and neo-conservatives so influential 9 in America.

[02:12.62]Also from the “ultra-liberals”,

[02:15.63]the relativists who see nothing special

[02:17.76]about western liberal society,

[02:19.91]who deny personal responsibility

[02:22.14]and incubate the “victim mentality”.

[02:24.74]But the greatest threat to liberalism is that

[02:27.96]few still believe passionately 10 in it.

[02:30.08]Liberalism's successes have blunted its appeal.

[02:33.34]Western civilisation 11 has reached a fork in the road.

[02:36.81]Down one road lie cynicism, aggression 12,

[02:40.49]indifference, neo-conservatism and ultra-liberalism.

[02:44.18]Down the other lies a recovery of nerve,

[02:46.95]confidence in ourselves and our culture,

[02:49.38]unity within and between America and Europe,

[02:53.04]a society of individuals held together by self-improvement,

[02:57.36]striving, optimism, reason, compassion 13,

[03:01.59]equality and mutual 14 identity.

[03:04.42]The road chosen will determine whether our civilisation

[03:08.23]collapses or reaches its destiny.