'Western Values' Explained

Mr. Beat attempts to define "Western Values," but by doing so, realizes it's a problematic phrase.

Produced by Matt Beat. All images and video by Matt Beat, used under fair use guidelines, or found in the public domain.

Music by Bad Snacks and Trash Planet.

A special thanks to Define American and Gutsy Media for their support creating this video.

Sources/additional reading:
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Neil Ferguson
Why the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity by Rodney Stark

Suggested watching:

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#westernvalues #thewest #history #defineamerican

You might be thinking, I should already know what “The West” means. After all, I spent at least hundreds of hours studying for overpriced Western Civilization classes I took in college. And yet, years later I still found myself Googling what “The West” actually was. Is it a reference to the Western Hemisphere? No, not really. It basically is a reference to Europe or any part of the world that has historically been heavily influenced by Europe. For that reason, The West is often expanded to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.

Now remember, the opposite of west is east, so at one point there had to be a divide.

The divide between West and East we see today has its roots in the cultural and religious divide of the Roman Empire. For example, folks in the western portion of the Roman Empire often spoke Latin, while folks in the eastern portion of it often spoke Greek. Later, the divide became more evident when the western portion no longer was a thing yet the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued on. And then, in 1054, there was the East–West Schism, aka The Great Schism, which was the first major split of Christianity. After it, there were now two denominations in Christianity, the Catholic Church in the west and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East. This split, combined with the early Muslim conquests that spread Islam throughout Western Asia and Northern Africa, made it so that Western Christianity developed a more separate identity...oh, and VALUES (supposedly) .

When European explorers began to travel the globe to conquer and colonize foreign lands, they brought these values with them. And missionaries followed them who eventually were successful at converting millions to Christianity. Or I should say, WESTERN Christianity. So where these ideas were not heavily influenced were presumably not “The West.”

If you’ve got 9 minutes, I strongly recommend my friend Dom’s video called “What is ‘the West’” over on his channel Cogito. He goes into it deeper than I just did.

Ok, now that we established what “The West” is, let’s now attempt to define “Western Values.”

Are they simply the values that people who live in The West have? Well no, not really.

[iammrbeat]

Should we no longer use the phrase "Western values?"

Also, my cat of 19 years, Ellie, who I refer to in this video, died on New Year's Eve, after I filmed this. I dedicate this video to her.
And now I need to find a new cat producer.

[icewink]

One aspect of this that you didn't touch on, is that there are a lot of ideas and values that originated in "The West" that usually aren't considered "Western Values" Nazism and Communism both originated in Europe, but they are not usually considered a part of "Western Values".

[Stormbura]

Using the phrase "western values", which is clearly undefined, is really great for politicians, as whomever is listening can easily insert whatever values THEY like and thus feel that the politician is fighting for THEIR values (regardless of which they are).

[matiascarvajal]

The term "Western civilization" has become more of an association to developed nations. By definition, it should include most of Latin America, a region clearly with huge influence of Europe (lenguage, religion, architecture, moral values and such), but almost everything i read about "Western civilization", only applies to North America, Australia, New Zealand and of course Europe.

[darreljones]

Western values: $5 cowboy hats!
Northeastern values: $1 ice scrapers!
Midwestern values: $10 farming overalls!
Southern values: $2 grits!

[ryleeroseborough]

I think we see something similar happening in US in particular. When we talk of nice welcoming people, we often monopolize them to midwesterners or southerners. This is despite most people throughout the country also being welcoming and kind. This leads to a culture war of the "Coastal Elites" vs us "good" people. It can happen in the other direction as well, with people on the coasts viewing anyone from different socioeconomic or geographic status as "backwards" or "stupid".

[gkiferonhs]

During my college days I was disillusioned with organized religion, but gave the originators the legitimacy of their experience. I felt all had encountered something beyond their description and could only fit their experience within their social and psychological milieu. One of the most fundamental ideas I found in all religions is, "Life is hard, help each other."

[peksn]

I think the main argument for any honest person to stop using that name, is that it dumbs down so much political discourse it is counter productive to take something new out of an argument.

[bryangamarra]

What puzzles me about "Western values" is how much they contradict a huge part of the political history of the West. If democracy is a Western value, were Bourbon France and Habsburg Spain not Western? Was Rome Western when it was a kingdom or only became Western when they kicked out Tarquinius? What about the Greek city-states that weren't democracies? Nowadays we have the Vatican City, is it Western? Partially, if we measure it with that list of values. So I think the so-called Western values are inconsistent with reality and confusing.

[sibericusthefrosty]

Here in our country, while studying sociology and history, rarely do we use the term "Western values" and would much prefer using terms such as Europe/an, and America/n influences. We also use the term the "West" in a more geographic sense, so it talks about Europe, the Americas, and Australia and New Zealand.

But all in all, we don't make it much of a big deal, so we just use these terms when referring to historical or cultural influences, and attach which nation first thought about it, regardless of its location.

[markpace]

Just came across this video after 10 months and it's a massive breath of fresh air. I applaud you for making such a well presented video to represent these messages.

[starpilot]

When I say "western values/culture" I mean classic liberalism and individualism. I often use it in contrast with Chinese culture (which I'm from). I started doing this when discussing parenting/childhood stuff and it went on from there.

[alecschambach]

Well put! Especially the part regarding Western values as coded language in many aspects. I never really gave it thought but I can see how using “Western” instead of other terms can obscure certain positions or potential action that ppl may want to keep discrete. Great video

[yc]

We live in a sad world where people put labels the wrong way for their gains or convenience. Basically, I think it is geopolitical branding and marketing.

I like how in this video, Mr. Beat was saying that we should say that people have values and what kind instead of saying "western values" or "eastern values" because nobody knows what "western values" and "eastern values" are. This way of thinking, as in generalizing and lumping a whole lot of things into one thing, also leads to a lot of confusion, for example, many Americans that I've seen go on to think that Asia is one country and one people, which is absurd.

Also, I really want to question this idea of individualism = west and collectivism = east. It seems like scholars in the past labeled it that way but to me, it just never made any sense. People all around the world just seem to have been brainwashed in schools to accept this idea. I think it is only generally valid; each country and people show varying degrees of these qualities.

Now lets all just say, democracy is a democracy, nazism is nazism, communism is communism, socialism is socialism, nationalism is nationalism, etc, instead of saying stuff like democracy is a western value and communism is an eastern value...(which the latter is just wrong) hmm... if anybody wants to label something they should be more specific like saying Confucianism is an East Asian value or more like an ideology, originating from Spring and Autumn period China and its influences were strong in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.


(10 mo old video but I'm here still commenting... LOL)

[severianthefool]

“No one has to own values.” That’s so well put.

[americanhistorygeek]

I think we need to rethink how we use the label “western values”. Good values and principles of responsibility and justice aren’t exclusive to just the west, they exist everywhere’s (including throughout the East). The values and principles that America is based on, exist from the power of individuals. Individuals who espouse these values can come from the West (i.e. Booker T. Washington) or the East (Malala Yousafzai). Great video as always Mr. Beat!

[GreatKhanMatt]

I agree with some of your points, the west does not have a monopoly on all these values. That being said there are certain values that the west definitely emphasises over others. For example the west is very much individualistic in its outlook due the englighment while the East is much more collectivist in its thinking due to the influence eastern philosophies such Buddhism and confuciansim. This explains why the cultures of Western Europe and east ask all while having common values, place certain emphasis on certain values.

[ytanddave]

“Western Values” is a marketing slogan, nothing more, nothing less. As shown by the video, the comments, and everyone’s common sense, values transcend. The divisions in our world arise around implementation choices, priorities, and variations of risk tolerance, not from the oversimplified shit we are told like “they hate freedom”. That’s just stupid.

[xequis]

Some asian values or eastern values I see growing up are "Harmony", "Respect", "Patience", "Empathy", "Compassion", "Order", "Structure". Also I think there's linguistic barriers in analyzing values. Even though we may seemingly share the same concept of "democracy" or "capitalism". But if you really dig deep into how 民主 (democracy in Chinese), 自由 (freedom in Chinese), 市场 (market in Chinese), constructed in different social and linguistic manners, their origin and developmental phases/processes are still different from western countries and there are enormous nuances. I don't really think western values that seemingly not limited to only in the west but also in the east are exactly the same considering all the nuances.

[williamcarter]

My favorite northwestern value- loving nature
My favorite southern value- sweet tea with lemon
My favorite western value- the beach boys

and yes, I value you too Mr Beat