Monday, January 1, 1996

Comparing West with East

"...the history of the West, more than any others (civilizations), has swung between savagery and idealism, a contradiction apparently deeply rooted in our character and our history. The inescapable lesson of history is that for all the great achievements of the West, for all its humanistic values and its egalitarian principles, its character is touched by a deep strain of violence. And that's the paradox that confronts us..." -- Michael Wood, narrator and producer of "Legacy," a PBS series that compared the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt, India, Iraq, and Middle America with the West.