Leftist Lies, Liberal Legends

Forty years ago Wendell Willkie, in one of the most naive books published in this century, told us we were living in one world. Then the Iron Curtain descended and one world became two. Today what has become known as the Third World is itself subdividing: the affluent Arab states on one side, the underdeveloped nations on the other. Around these nations a mythology is growing, designed to create a sense of guilt within the wealthier industrial nations.

General living standards in the underdeveloped regions are indeed lower, often much lower, than in the advanced industrial nations. But we should remember that until roughly 5,000 years ago men lived under unspeakable conditions, exposed to heat and cold, menaced by wild beasts, tortured by vermin; they lived in caves, under trees, or in miserable huts, and engaged in constant savage wars. In the Neolithic period the average life expectancy of those who survived childhood was 22 years for women and 28 for men. Here and there, along the Nile, in Mesopotamia, along the Indus and the Yang-tze, some few individuals led lives which we, the products of Western civilization, consider compatible with the dignity of man. It is only within the last five generations that some nations have developed what we call decent living standards. Louis XIV never got rid of his lice and fleas and Versailles stank terribly in summer. The amenities enjoyed today by the lower classes in industrialized societies (flush toilets, hi-fi sets, television, modern hospitals, antibiotics, comfortable travel, dentists, etc.) would have seemed utopian to a wealthy aristocrat two centuries back. But this was bought at a very high price, through the harnessed genius of generations of scientists, engineers, managers, and entrepreneurs and at the cost of a brutally ascetic life for the working class for an extended period.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Forty years ago Wendell Willkie, in one of the most naive books published in this century, told us we were living in one world. Then the Iron Curtain descended and one world became two. Today what has become known as the Third World is itself subdividing: the affluent Arab states on one side, the underdeveloped nations on the other. Around these nations a mythology is growing, designed to create a sense of guilt within the wealthier industrial nations.

General living standards in the underdeveloped regions are indeed lower, often much lower, than in the advanced industrial nations. But we should remember that until roughly 5,000 years ago men lived under unspeakable conditions, exposed to heat and cold, menaced by wild beasts, tortured by vermin; they lived in caves, under trees, or in miserable huts, and engaged in constant savage wars. In the Neolithic period the average life expectancy of those who survived childhood was 22 years for women and 28 for men. Here and there, along the Nile, in Mesopotamia, along the Indus and the Yang-tze, some few individuals led lives which we, the products of Western civilization, consider compatible with the dignity of man. It is only within the last five generations that some nations have developed what we call decent living standards. Louis XIV never got rid of his lice and fleas and Versailles stank terribly in summer. The amenities enjoyed today by the lower classes in industrialized societies (flush toilets, hi-fi sets, television, modern hospitals, antibiotics, comfortable travel, dentists, etc.) would have seemed utopian to a wealthy aristocrat two centuries back. But this was bought at a very high price, through the harnessed genius of generations of scientists, engineers, managers, and entrepreneurs and at the cost of a brutally ascetic life for the working class for an extended period.