Americans Must Ruthlessly Defend Their High Standard of Living

We refuse to apologize for living better than the rest of the world.

Western civilization’s contributions to the world are nearly innumerable. The Left parrots their narrative about the evils of Europeans and the nations that sprang from them, but where would the world be without the West and legacies such as the printing press, mass literacy, hospitals, medicine, republicanism, indoor plumbing, electricity, philosophy, art, architecture, music, automobiles, airplanes, computers, and more?

One of the legacies of the West that must be ferociously defended against the attacks — both literal and rhetorical — of the Left is the belief in a high standard of living.

Of course, the Western world does have a high standard of living compared to much of the world. Even the poor in America live like kings relative to the average quality of life in some parts of Asia or Africa, for instance.

But when I say that we must maintain a “belief” in a high standard of living, that means we must internalize that a high quality of life is our right and heritage. For without this internal belief, the material side of the life we are so accustomed to will gradually fade away among the assault from the Left.

One of the most corrosive narratives wielded by the Left is the rhetoric that the style of life we enjoy in America and Europe is “privilege” — that it is somehow evil because, in their eyes, it’s all built on the back of oppressed minorities or “stolen” wealth via colonialism.

And because this “privilege” — clean and safe communities, plumbing, running water, electricity, responsible government, public goods such as libraries and parks — is evil, the Left wants us to believe that we do not deserve it and it should be destroyed.

This is the mentality that pervades Black Lives Matter, raiding neighborhoods, burning and looting like animals to destroy any vestige of civilization they can find. It pervades the notion of “gentrification,” with the poor, usually minorities, rallying against the improvement of their neighborhoods into safer, cleaner areas due to the arrival of wealthier people (usually whites).

This corrosive anti-civilization mentality even pervades the seemingly innocuous modern trope of the “Karen,” a word associated with a person (usually a woman) who annoyingly complains at a restaurant or other establishment, but which is now often thrown at anyone who displays behavior undesirable to the person using the word.

While no customer should ever be abusive or onerous, isn’t it a good thing that we live in a society where the service industry is characterized by hospitality? Where private businesses and governmental departments alike treat patrons with dignity and respect and try their best to provide them with a good customer experience? Where one can speak to management if there are issues with the service being offered by employees?

I lived in Mexico for four years, and one of the striking differences I saw between that country and the United States was a lack of strong Mexican hospitality and customer-service culture. Whether in a store or a government building, the workers treat customers like a nuisance who are being done a favor.

So while there are always going to be a few actual “Karens” who can be a headache for workers to deal with, the reality is, it’s a good thing in America that we demand a higher caliber of treatment from those in the service industry. It makes life more enjoyable, and the businesses themselves prosper because they maximize their customers’ satisfaction.

In the same way, we must not ask, but demand, that our society preserve the high standards we have come to expect. In the Third World, litter and filthy streets are the norm at which no one bats an eyelash. By contrast, we in the West have come to expect that our streets be pristine and free from litter — and we have not only a right, but (for our descendants’ sake) a duty to uphold that standard.

Yet this is gradually becoming lost; as leftists take over local governments and Third World migrants pour across our border, American communities are beginning to resemble those of developing nations — trash, homeless people, and drug use in full public view.

This is precisely what has happened with crime. There was a time when children could walk or ride their bikes to school alone and play on the streets; a time when people didn’t need to lock the doors to their homes. But we relaxed our standards and accepted lawlessness as status quo.

We do not have to settle for a society in which cleanliness, law and order, and the functioning of important utilities such as plumbing and clean, running water are compromised by a manic obsession with political correctness driven by Marxist revenge fantasies.

Let’s be firm in upholding the greatness of our civilization. Let’s be proud of the sacrifices our ancestors made so that we could enjoy a higher quality of life. And let’s ensure the blessings we inherited are passed on to the next generation.