1
00:00:05,687 --> 00:00:11,398
For the last 500 years, Western
civilization has dominated the world.

2
00:00:15,287 --> 00:00:19,963
The West taught the rest
its way of doing business,

3
00:00:20,007 --> 00:00:22,123
its scientific method...

4
00:00:23,527 --> 00:00:25,995
...its law and politics...

5
00:00:28,327 --> 00:00:30,841
...and its way of dressing.

6
00:00:33,327 --> 00:00:36,558
In this series,
I'm Iooking at the six unique factors,

7
00:00:36,607 --> 00:00:38,677
I'm caIIing them the kiIIer appIications,

8
00:00:38,727 --> 00:00:41,685
that ensured that the West
ruIed over the rest.

9
00:00:41,727 --> 00:00:45,515
And I'm asking, if we Iose
our monopoIy on those kiIIer apps,

10
00:00:45,567 --> 00:00:47,842
couId the rest catch up with the West?

11
00:00:47,887 --> 00:00:50,401
lt wouldn't be the first time in history

12
00:00:50,447 --> 00:00:54,235
the ascendancy of Western civilization
has been threatened.

13
00:00:56,447 --> 00:00:59,917
ln his
DecIine And FaII Of The Roman Empire,

14
00:00:59,967 --> 00:01:03,596
the historian Edward Gibbon
gave a vivid account

15
00:01:03,647 --> 00:01:08,118
of the last time the West
collapsed - 1,600 years ago.

16
00:01:09,447 --> 00:01:13,565
Today, many of us fear we're Iiving
through a kind of nightmare sequeI,

17
00:01:13,607 --> 00:01:15,802
Decline And Fall Revisited.

18
00:01:15,847 --> 00:01:17,883
FinanciaIIy and cIimaticaIIy,

19
00:01:17,927 --> 00:01:21,761
signs of impending disaster
seem to be aII around us.

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Is this the end of Western civiIization
aII over again?

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00:01:33,287 --> 00:01:37,166
So far, l've explored
five of the killer apps

22
00:01:37,207 --> 00:01:39,926
that gave the West
its advantage over the rest

23
00:01:39,967 --> 00:01:43,357
for the better part
of the past half millennium.

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00:01:45,127 --> 00:01:49,405
But l've saved a key killer app
until last.

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00:01:51,927 --> 00:01:55,283
Edward Gibbon's most radicaI
and contentious argument

26
00:01:55,327 --> 00:01:58,080
was that Christianity was a fataI soIvent

27
00:01:58,127 --> 00:02:00,766
of the first version
of Western civiIization.

28
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What a rich irony, then,
that a variant of Christianity

29
00:02:04,527 --> 00:02:09,476
provided the sixth kiIIer appIication
for Western civiIization mark II.

30
00:02:09,527 --> 00:02:13,042
It was a variant that arose
in 16th-century Europe -

31
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Protestantism and the work ethic,

32
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to which it famousIy gave its name.

33
00:02:20,527 --> 00:02:27,080
The Protestant work ethic was critical
to the success of Western civilization.

34
00:02:27,127 --> 00:02:31,518
But the big question today is,
have we lost it...

35
00:02:35,167 --> 00:02:39,763
...just at the time
when others have found it?

36
00:03:01,927 --> 00:03:04,077
(BIRDSONG)

37
00:03:04,127 --> 00:03:07,676
(CHURCH BELLS)

38
00:03:13,207 --> 00:03:16,244
lt was one of the great mysteries
of Western civilization.

39
00:03:17,247 --> 00:03:22,685
Why was it, if you were a wealthy European
industrialist in the 1 9th century,

40
00:03:22,727 --> 00:03:26,959
you would also
most likely be a Protestant?

41
00:03:27,007 --> 00:03:32,127
ln the 1 6th century, the Reformation
had led many north European states

42
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to break away
from the Roman Catholic Church.

43
00:03:35,287 --> 00:03:40,202
At the same time, there had been
a shift of economic power

44
00:03:40,247 --> 00:03:43,205
from Catholic countries
like ltaly and Spain

45
00:03:43,247 --> 00:03:47,559
towards Protestant countries
like England and Germany.

46
00:03:48,927 --> 00:03:51,760
It seemed as if there was
some kind of connection

47
00:03:51,807 --> 00:03:53,684
between the content of your faith,

48
00:03:53,727 --> 00:03:56,958
the form of your worship
and your economic fortunes.

49
00:03:57,007 --> 00:03:58,406
The question was,

50
00:03:58,447 --> 00:04:03,237
what was it about Protestantism
that made peopIe not onIy work harder,

51
00:04:03,287 --> 00:04:05,926
but save and accumuIate capitaI?

52
00:04:05,967 --> 00:04:09,437
Just why was Protestantism
such an integraI part

53
00:04:09,487 --> 00:04:12,001
of Western civiIization's success story?

54
00:04:12,047 --> 00:04:14,959
WeII, the man who came up
with the best answer to that question

55
00:04:15,007 --> 00:04:16,884
was a depressive German professor,

56
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and in the process he gave socioIogy
perhaps its most enduring catch phrase,

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the Protestant work ethic.

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Max Weber was a precocious youth.

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He grew up here in Erfurt,

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one of the great strongholds
of the German Reformation.

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00:04:39,407 --> 00:04:42,558
By the age of 1 4,
Weber was writing letters

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00:04:42,607 --> 00:04:48,523
studded with references to classical
authors like Homer, Virgil and Cicero.

63
00:04:51,287 --> 00:04:56,077
But the older he got, the more
it was religion that interested him.

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00:04:58,367 --> 00:05:02,280
What it was about the Reformation,
Weber wondered,

65
00:05:02,327 --> 00:05:07,196
that had made the north of Europe
more capitalism-friendly than the south?

66
00:05:07,247 --> 00:05:09,078
(BELLS RING OUT)

67
00:05:09,127 --> 00:05:11,641
It took a trip way out West

68
00:05:11,687 --> 00:05:17,444
to give Weber the reaI key
to the West's unique workahoIic ethic.

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00:05:28,327 --> 00:05:33,196
ln 1 904, Weber travelled here
to St Louis, Missouri,

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00:05:33,247 --> 00:05:37,684
to attend the Congress of Arts
and Sciences at the World's Fair.

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00:05:42,567 --> 00:05:46,480
This is the Iast surviving paviIion
of the WorId's Fair.

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00:05:46,527 --> 00:05:49,678
And you can see why Weber
was bIown away when he came here.

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00:05:49,727 --> 00:05:52,400
There were IiteraIIy dozens
of these huge buiIdings

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00:05:52,447 --> 00:05:54,961
scattered aII over a 200-acre site,

75
00:05:55,007 --> 00:05:59,717
and each one was jam-packed with the
Iatest products of the Age of Industry.

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00:05:59,767 --> 00:06:02,884
It was a cornucopia
of American capitaIism.

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00:06:05,567 --> 00:06:10,880
Weber was dazzled by the shining lights
of the Palace of Electricity.

78
00:06:10,927 --> 00:06:15,557
The alternating-current king,
Thomas Edison himself, was on hand,

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00:06:15,607 --> 00:06:20,123
the personification
of American entrepreneurship.

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00:06:22,327 --> 00:06:27,640
St Louis was brimming
with marvels of modern technology,

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00:06:27,687 --> 00:06:33,125
from telephones to titanic steel plates
to motion pictures.

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00:06:39,247 --> 00:06:45,322
The amazing thing about the 1904 St Louis
WorId's Fair wasn't just its size,

83
00:06:45,367 --> 00:06:50,487
it was the fact that inside every singIe
one of these huge purpose-buiIt paviIions

84
00:06:50,527 --> 00:06:53,963
there was something the pubIic
was actuaIIy wiIIing to pay to see.

85
00:06:54,007 --> 00:06:56,123
This thing made a profit.

86
00:06:56,167 --> 00:06:59,876
What couId possibIy expIain
the dynamism of this society,

87
00:06:59,927 --> 00:07:05,240
which made even industriaI Germany
seem stoIid and staid by comparison?

88
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Almost manically restless,

89
00:07:10,247 --> 00:07:13,603
Weber rushed around the United States
in search of an answer.

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00:07:26,287 --> 00:07:29,882
Travelling by train
from St Louis to Oklahoma,

91
00:07:29,927 --> 00:07:33,044
through small Missouri towns
like Bourbon and Cuba...

92
00:07:36,807 --> 00:07:38,240
... Weber finally got it.

93
00:07:40,487 --> 00:07:42,443
(BELL RINGS)

94
00:07:43,727 --> 00:07:47,083
This is the IittIe town
of St James, Missouri,

95
00:07:47,127 --> 00:07:49,687
about 100 miIes west of St Louis,

96
00:07:49,727 --> 00:07:53,766
and one of thousands of settIements
that sprang up aIong the raiIroads

97
00:07:53,807 --> 00:07:58,085
that spearheaded
the great American thrust westwards.

98
00:07:58,127 --> 00:08:00,846
Now, when Max Weber came here
about a century ago,

99
00:08:00,887 --> 00:08:02,286
he couIdn't heIp being struck

100
00:08:02,327 --> 00:08:05,478
by the extraordinary number
of churches there were

101
00:08:05,527 --> 00:08:08,041
of every conceivabIe denomination.

102
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Wherever Weber Iooked,
there seemed to be a kind of hoIy aIIiance

103
00:08:11,847 --> 00:08:16,204
between economic growth
and the Protestant faith.

104
00:08:19,567 --> 00:08:22,161
When Weber returned
to his study in Heidelberg,

105
00:08:22,207 --> 00:08:25,995
he wrote the second part
of his seminal two-part essay...

106
00:08:27,167 --> 00:08:31,922
...The Protestant Ethic
And The Spirit of CapitaIism.

107
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ln it, he identified
the key component of Protestantism

108
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that fostered economic success.

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Whereas other reIigions associated
hoIiness with a renunciation of the worId,

110
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monks in cIoisters and hermits in caves,

111
00:08:47,807 --> 00:08:50,275
the Protestant sects were different.

112
00:08:50,327 --> 00:08:51,726
For them,

113
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thrift and industry couId be expressions
of a new kind of hard-working hoIiness.

114
00:09:00,007 --> 00:09:02,237
(ORGAN MUSIC)

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00:09:07,847 --> 00:09:13,683
''For most of history, men had worked to
live, but the Protestants lived to work. ''

116
00:09:13,727 --> 00:09:18,278
And this work ethic, Weber argued,
was the key to the spirit of capitalism.

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00:09:19,447 --> 00:09:22,598
His core argument was
that Protestants worked hard

118
00:09:22,647 --> 00:09:25,002
out of a kind of godIy caIIing.

119
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They were working, accumuIating capitaI
and deferring consumption,

120
00:09:29,487 --> 00:09:32,399
in order to prove their own godIiness.

121
00:09:37,327 --> 00:09:41,400
ln earlier programmes, we saw
how Confucianism has been blamed

122
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for lmperial China's failure
to have an industrial revolution.

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We saw how the power of the clergy

124
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snuffed out any chance of a scientific
revolution in the lslamic world.

125
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And we saw how Protestant North America
pulled ahead of Catholic South America.

126
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But the biggest contribution of religion
to the history of Western civilization

127
00:10:10,447 --> 00:10:12,563
was this.

128
00:10:12,607 --> 00:10:15,997
Protestantism made the West work.

129
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The question is,

130
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has part of the West today
lost both religion

131
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and the work ethic that went with it?

132
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The Protestant ethic

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00:10:36,727 --> 00:10:41,960
seemed to Max Weber to be the key
to the spirit of Western capitalism,

134
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one of the things that set the West apart

135
00:10:44,527 --> 00:10:48,202
from the other-worldly
and often indolent Orient.

136
00:10:51,847 --> 00:10:55,601
For a long time,
the theory seemed to hold good.

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Through a mixture of hard work and thrift,

138
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the Protestant societies
of the North and West Atlantic

139
00:11:06,487 --> 00:11:09,763
achieved the most rapid
economic growth in history.

140
00:11:15,727 --> 00:11:20,721
But today there's a schism
at the heart of Christendom.

141
00:11:20,767 --> 00:11:26,797
Europeans these days work a whole lot less
than their American counterparts.

142
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And they don't only work less,
they pray less.

143
00:11:39,127 --> 00:11:43,279
ln England, for example,
fewer than 2% of the population

144
00:11:43,327 --> 00:11:48,003
now attends a Church of England service
on a typical Sunday.

145
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lt's a real anomaly in a world

146
00:11:51,367 --> 00:11:56,839
where, everywhere else, religious faith
is not just strong but growing.

147
00:12:02,727 --> 00:12:06,481
So, just who killed
Christianity in Europe?

148
00:12:08,327 --> 00:12:11,000
Was it, as Weber himself predicted,

149
00:12:11,047 --> 00:12:16,121
that materialism corrupted
the original austerity of the Protestants?

150
00:12:20,647 --> 00:12:24,356
Was it the legacy of Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution,

151
00:12:24,407 --> 00:12:28,958
which successfully supplanted
the Biblical story of divine creation?

152
00:12:36,407 --> 00:12:43,006
Or could it be that European Christianity
was killed by selfishness itself,

153
00:12:43,047 --> 00:12:46,198
the chronic egotism of modern culture?

154
00:12:49,007 --> 00:12:54,604
Was the murderer of Europe's Protestant
work ethic none other than this man,

155
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the Viennese psychotherapist
Sigmund Freud?

156
00:13:06,687 --> 00:13:12,000
(SIGHS) I don't know what it is
but I'm... I'm reaIIy depressed.

157
00:13:12,047 --> 00:13:15,881
I... I'm haunted by a fear of my own death.

158
00:13:15,927 --> 00:13:18,919
And by guiIt. TerribIe guiIt.

159
00:13:18,967 --> 00:13:24,724
GuiIt about...about my parents,
about my wife, about my kids.

160
00:13:24,767 --> 00:13:27,600
I don't know what I'm gonna do.

161
00:13:32,927 --> 00:13:36,476
(SIGHS) My anaIyst thinks
it couId be my mother.

162
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I mean she's not Jewish but...
but she couId be.

163
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But I think it's more IikeIy my father,
this insane Protestant work ethic.

164
00:13:44,487 --> 00:13:48,878
AII I ever got aII my Iife
was, ''Work, more work.''

165
00:13:48,927 --> 00:13:52,317
Every probIem, the same soIution.
''Do some more work.''

166
00:13:52,367 --> 00:13:54,483
But that's enough about me.

167
00:13:54,527 --> 00:13:58,520
TeII me, Dr Freud,
what do you think my probIem is?

168
00:14:03,167 --> 00:14:05,044
ln The Future Of An IIIusion,

169
00:14:05,087 --> 00:14:07,317
the founding father of psychoanalysis

170
00:14:07,367 --> 00:14:10,723
came up with a different story
from Max Weber's.

171
00:14:13,047 --> 00:14:15,959
For Freud,
religion wasn't the driving force

172
00:14:16,007 --> 00:14:19,317
behind the achievements
of Western civilization.

173
00:14:19,367 --> 00:14:22,677
lnstead, it was essentially an illusion...

174
00:14:25,607 --> 00:14:27,279
...a universal neurosis

175
00:14:27,327 --> 00:14:32,640
devised by civilization to prevent people
from giving way to their basic instincts.

176
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ln particular, their sexual desires
and violent, destructive impulses.

177
00:14:46,607 --> 00:14:50,680
Freud's point was this - if you took away
the prohibitions of reIigion,

178
00:14:50,727 --> 00:14:55,323
then men wouId feeI free to sIeep with any
woman they wanted whenever they wanted.

179
00:14:55,367 --> 00:14:59,645
They'd feeI free to kiII their rivaIs
and grab their property.

180
00:14:59,687 --> 00:15:01,120
The whoIe point about reIigion

181
00:15:01,167 --> 00:15:05,046
was that it prohibited
sexuaI promiscuity and vioIence.

182
00:15:06,167 --> 00:15:11,605
Was Freud saying that religion was
a necessary prop for a civilized society?

183
00:15:11,647 --> 00:15:16,163
Or was he siding with those who felt their
innermost urges were being thwarted,

184
00:15:16,207 --> 00:15:19,916
repressed by superstitious mumbo jumbo?

185
00:15:25,047 --> 00:15:29,677
Perhaps it was Freud's theories,
with their negative view of repression...

186
00:15:31,087 --> 00:15:36,241
...and their explicit sympathy
with the erotic impulse,

187
00:15:36,287 --> 00:15:45,002
that persuaded Europeans to exit
the churches and enter the sex shops.

188
00:15:45,047 --> 00:15:48,278
(SIRENS)

189
00:15:52,447 --> 00:15:58,443
For many people, this is what Western
civilization has now been reduced to -

190
00:15:58,487 --> 00:16:03,766
a spiritually vacuous celebration
of the pleasures of the flesh.

191
00:16:06,407 --> 00:16:11,197
Maybe, in short,
it was porn that killed God in Europe.

192
00:16:15,287 --> 00:16:19,644
The trouble with all these theories
about the death of Protestantism

193
00:16:19,687 --> 00:16:23,680
is that they explain everything
about Europe's de-Christianization

194
00:16:23,727 --> 00:16:29,404
but nothing whatsoever
about America's continued Christian faith.

195
00:16:29,447 --> 00:16:30,846
You see,

196
00:16:30,887 --> 00:16:37,440
Americans have experienced just the same
social and cultural changes as Europeans.

197
00:16:37,487 --> 00:16:43,039
They've become richer.
Their knowledge of science has increased.

198
00:16:43,087 --> 00:16:48,878
And they're even more into psychoanalysis
and pornography than Europeans.

199
00:16:52,727 --> 00:16:56,083
But whiIe Christianity in Europe
is moribund,

200
00:16:56,127 --> 00:16:58,482
here in the United States it's thriving.

201
00:16:58,527 --> 00:16:59,926
Indeed by some measures,

202
00:16:59,967 --> 00:17:03,084
Jesus and Christianity
are bigger in America today

203
00:17:03,127 --> 00:17:05,357
than they were 50 years ago,

204
00:17:05,407 --> 00:17:06,806
and here's the evidence.

205
00:17:06,847 --> 00:17:10,442
Thousands of worshippers piIing
into church on a Sunday morning,

206
00:17:10,487 --> 00:17:13,285
the way the EngIish these days
piIe into shopping maIIs.

207
00:17:13,327 --> 00:17:16,842
And, no, this is a church
not a shopping maII.

208
00:17:19,927 --> 00:17:22,236
So, how can we explain the fact

209
00:17:22,287 --> 00:17:26,121
that Western civilization
appears to have split in two?

210
00:17:26,167 --> 00:17:28,203
MAN: And good morning!

211
00:17:28,247 --> 00:17:31,876
To the East a godless Europe.

212
00:17:31,927 --> 00:17:35,078
To the West a God-fearing America.

213
00:17:37,447 --> 00:17:41,838
The best answer can be found here
in Springfield, Missouri,

214
00:17:41,887 --> 00:17:49,760
birthplace of the legendary highway
linking Chicago and California, Route 66.

215
00:17:55,447 --> 00:18:00,237
Max Weber passed through here
on his road trip back in 1 904.

216
00:18:00,287 --> 00:18:05,042
lf he was impressed by the diversity
of Protestant sects 1 00 years ago,

217
00:18:05,087 --> 00:18:07,282
he'd be astonished today.

218
00:18:14,047 --> 00:18:20,043
Now it's not your kicks you get
on Route 66, it's your crucifix.

219
00:18:21,087 --> 00:18:26,161
Springfield has roughly one church
for every 1,000 citizens.

220
00:18:26,207 --> 00:18:30,166
There are 1 22 Baptist churches...

221
00:18:30,207 --> 00:18:32,846
36 Methodist chapels,

222
00:18:32,887 --> 00:18:38,200
25 Churches of Christ
and 1 5 Churches of God.

223
00:18:38,247 --> 00:18:41,956
ln all, some 400
Christian places of worship.

224
00:18:45,487 --> 00:18:50,322
And as Weber pointed out, these
churches are involved in a competition

225
00:18:50,367 --> 00:18:56,237
that today is just as hot as that
between car lots or fast-food joints.

226
00:18:57,407 --> 00:19:00,877
And this is it, the winner
in the SpringfieId battIe of the churches.

227
00:19:00,927 --> 00:19:03,282
It's the James River AssembIy,

228
00:19:03,327 --> 00:19:06,046
and it's not onIy the biggest church
in SpringfieId,

229
00:19:06,087 --> 00:19:09,523
it's one of the biggest
in the whoIe of the United States.

230
00:19:09,567 --> 00:19:12,240
- (BAND PLAYS)
- You are awesome and you are great.

231
00:19:12,287 --> 00:19:14,596
So, can we just worship the Lord?

232
00:19:14,647 --> 00:19:17,605
WouId you Iift your hands and just begin
to praise him in your own words?

233
00:19:17,647 --> 00:19:20,639
About how good and how great he is?

234
00:19:24,167 --> 00:19:29,719
On a Sunday, they pack around
7,000 believers into James River Assembly.

235
00:19:31,167 --> 00:19:37,515
lts pastor John Lindell certainly believes
in the potent mix of work and religion.

236
00:19:37,567 --> 00:19:40,320
You might think you're aII aIone,

237
00:19:40,367 --> 00:19:45,805
but if you Iove God, he's right there
with you, and he's your stronghoId.

238
00:19:45,847 --> 00:19:52,002
So, Max Weber came to these parts
aImost exactIy 100 years ago

239
00:19:52,047 --> 00:19:56,279
and was struck by the reIationship between
these very diverse, vibrant churches

240
00:19:56,327 --> 00:19:57,726
competing with one another,

241
00:19:57,767 --> 00:20:04,036
and economic Iife, which seemed to be
equaIIy more vibrant than in...in Europe.

242
00:20:04,087 --> 00:20:07,238
Do you see there as being a Iink between
the spirituaI and the economic in America?

243
00:20:07,287 --> 00:20:09,801
AbsoIuteIy, I mean,
and I think it's as simpIe as this.

244
00:20:09,847 --> 00:20:14,363
That when a...when a person
has had their Iife touched by God,

245
00:20:14,407 --> 00:20:17,717
immediateIy there's gonna be an optimism,

246
00:20:17,767 --> 00:20:21,237
because the BibIe says,
if God be for us, who couId be against us.

247
00:20:21,287 --> 00:20:26,236
There's aIso gonna be a sense of purpose,
of something beyond myseIf,

248
00:20:26,287 --> 00:20:29,518
and work itseIf becomes
a means of gIorifying God,

249
00:20:29,567 --> 00:20:33,685
because the BibIe says
you're not working for your...your master,

250
00:20:33,727 --> 00:20:35,126
you're working for the Lord.

251
00:20:35,167 --> 00:20:37,886
So, there's no question
when somebody is serving God,

252
00:20:37,927 --> 00:20:41,636
their quaIity of Iife
and their focus in Iife reaIIy changes.

253
00:20:41,687 --> 00:20:43,917
And I think
that contributes to prosperity.

254
00:20:43,967 --> 00:20:47,323
So, the Protestant ethic is aIive and weII
and Iiving in SpringfieId, Missouri?

255
00:20:47,367 --> 00:20:48,766
I think it is.

256
00:20:48,807 --> 00:20:51,765
Lord, we praise you! You're awesome!

257
00:20:54,887 --> 00:20:58,163
Ask yourseIf
what is the singIe biggest difference

258
00:20:58,207 --> 00:21:01,802
between reIigion in America
and reIigion in Europe.

259
00:21:01,847 --> 00:21:06,045
I think the answer is that the Reformation
in Europe ended up being nationaIised,

260
00:21:06,087 --> 00:21:09,477
and the resuIt was the creation
of state monopoIy churches

261
00:21:09,527 --> 00:21:10,926
Iike the Church of EngIand.

262
00:21:10,967 --> 00:21:12,366
But here in the United States

263
00:21:12,407 --> 00:21:15,126
they maintained
the separation of Church and state,

264
00:21:15,167 --> 00:21:19,604
and the resuIt was competition
between muItipIe churches.

265
00:21:21,167 --> 00:21:26,366
And that may be the real reason for
the strange death of religion in Europe.

266
00:21:28,287 --> 00:21:33,964
ln religion as in business,
state monopolies are inefficient.

267
00:21:38,367 --> 00:21:42,724
There's only one problem with turning
religion into a form of consumption.

268
00:21:42,767 --> 00:21:46,806
Americans have drifted
a very long way away

269
00:21:46,847 --> 00:21:49,600
from Max Weber's version
of the Protestant ethic,

270
00:21:49,647 --> 00:21:55,756
in which deferred gratification went
hand in hand with capital accumulation.

271
00:21:57,567 --> 00:22:03,119
We've just lived through an experiment,
capitalism without saving.

272
00:22:03,167 --> 00:22:05,920
And it didn't turn out too well, did it?

273
00:22:07,807 --> 00:22:12,244
In the United States during the housing
bubbIe, the savings rate feII to zero

274
00:22:12,287 --> 00:22:17,156
and totaI debt exceeded
three-and-a-haIf times nationaI income.

275
00:22:17,207 --> 00:22:22,998
The Protestant ethic without thrift turned
out to be a recipe for financiaI meItdown.

276
00:22:23,047 --> 00:22:24,799
But that isn't true everywhere.

277
00:22:24,847 --> 00:22:28,601
In parts of the worId that seek to emuIate
the American economic miracIe,

278
00:22:28,647 --> 00:22:33,323
retaiI reIigion and feeI-good faith
have retained the Protestant ethic.

279
00:22:33,367 --> 00:22:36,643
Yup, I'm taIking about Asia.

280
00:22:55,447 --> 00:22:57,483
According to a recent survey,

281
00:22:57,527 --> 00:23:02,760
there are now around 40 million
Protestant Christians in China,

282
00:23:02,807 --> 00:23:07,676
compared with barely
half a million in 1 949.

283
00:23:09,607 --> 00:23:16,160
Some estimates put the maximum
even higher, at 7 5 or 1 1 0 million.

284
00:23:18,727 --> 00:23:22,197
This is the Nanjing Amity
Printing Company,

285
00:23:22,247 --> 00:23:26,160
the biggest manufacturer of bibIes
in the entire worId.

286
00:23:26,207 --> 00:23:30,200
Since 1986, they've produced
70 miIIion of the things,

287
00:23:30,247 --> 00:23:34,001
50 miIIion of them in Mandarin
and other Chinese diaIects.

288
00:23:34,047 --> 00:23:38,438
(AMERICAN ACCENT) In the beginning was
the word. In the end there was this pIace.

289
00:23:40,087 --> 00:23:43,875
Today there may actually be
more practising Christians in China

290
00:23:43,927 --> 00:23:45,326
than in Europe.

291
00:23:49,687 --> 00:23:52,645
(# CONGREGATION: Amazing Grace)

292
00:23:58,167 --> 00:24:00,283
That's an amazing fact,

293
00:24:00,327 --> 00:24:04,081
considering how much resistance
there's been throughout Chinese history

294
00:24:04,127 --> 00:24:06,436
to the spread of Christianity.

295
00:24:06,487 --> 00:24:11,561
ln programme one of this series,
l argued that after the 1 4th century,

296
00:24:11,607 --> 00:24:14,804
China's wealth and power
were fatally undermined

297
00:24:14,847 --> 00:24:19,762
because the Chinese failed to grasp
the killer app of competition.

298
00:24:21,927 --> 00:24:25,078
But that wasn't the onIy app
they Iacked for haIf a miIIennium.

299
00:24:25,127 --> 00:24:28,324
The other was the Protestant work ethic.

300
00:24:30,207 --> 00:24:34,166
The historical failure of Protestantism
to take root in China

301
00:24:34,207 --> 00:24:36,596
is actually something of a puzzle.

302
00:24:36,647 --> 00:24:42,916
lt wasn't as if Westerners didn't try
to give the Chinese the good news.

303
00:24:42,967 --> 00:24:46,164
In the 19th century,
as you can see from this amazing map,

304
00:24:46,207 --> 00:24:49,563
Western missionary societies
took China by storm,

305
00:24:49,607 --> 00:24:52,405
sending IiteraIIy hundreds
of young men and women

306
00:24:52,447 --> 00:24:55,678
to try to convert
the worId's most popuIous nation.

307
00:25:03,327 --> 00:25:09,721
Many of them ended up here in Wenzhou,
a city just to the south of Shanghai,

308
00:25:09,767 --> 00:25:15,160
as trailblazers
for the China lnland Mission.

309
00:25:19,287 --> 00:25:22,518
The problem was that,
for all their hard work,

310
00:25:22,567 --> 00:25:27,277
the missionaries' time in China
turned out to be not a breakthrough...

311
00:25:28,527 --> 00:25:31,917
...but nearly a breakdown of Christianity.

312
00:25:37,687 --> 00:25:44,160
And that was due to one convert
who went very badly off-message.

313
00:25:45,927 --> 00:25:50,000
His name was Hong Xiuquan.

314
00:25:50,047 --> 00:25:53,198
Indeed, it was Hong Xiuquan
who was responsibIe

315
00:25:53,247 --> 00:25:57,240
for the biggest and bIoodiest rebeIIion
in aII Chinese history...

316
00:25:58,927 --> 00:26:02,237
...a confIict that cIaimed the Iives
of twice as many peopIe

317
00:26:02,287 --> 00:26:05,802
as died on aII sides
in the whoIe of the First Word War.

318
00:26:11,207 --> 00:26:17,760
ln 1 836, it seemed that Hong was just one
of many new missionary society converts.

319
00:26:19,367 --> 00:26:24,157
But while recovering from a nervous
breakdown, he had a mystical vision

320
00:26:24,207 --> 00:26:30,203
in which he was revealed to be
the younger brother of Jesus Christ.

321
00:26:32,367 --> 00:26:36,565
God had instructed him
to rid China of Confucianism...

322
00:26:37,967 --> 00:26:40,162
...that inward-looking philosophy

323
00:26:40,207 --> 00:26:45,042
which saw competition and trade
as pernicious foreign imports.

324
00:26:46,527 --> 00:26:48,677
To achieve this,

325
00:26:48,727 --> 00:26:53,847
Hong created a quasi-Christian
society of God Worshippers

326
00:26:53,887 --> 00:26:58,961
that attracted the support
of tens of millions of Chinese.

327
00:27:00,127 --> 00:27:04,564
Hong procIaimed himseIf the monarch
of the HeavenIy Kingdom of Great Peace,

328
00:27:04,607 --> 00:27:07,360
and this was the goIden throne
on which he sat,

329
00:27:07,407 --> 00:27:11,002
respIendent in yeIIow siIk,
surrounded by his princes.

330
00:27:11,047 --> 00:27:14,039
In Chinese he was known
as Taiping Tianguo,

331
00:27:14,087 --> 00:27:18,000
hence the name of the uprising,
the Taiping RebeIIion.

332
00:27:23,807 --> 00:27:27,163
From Guangxi,
the rebels swept to Nanjing...

333
00:27:29,367 --> 00:27:33,406
...which Hong, the self-styled
Heavenly King, made his capital.

334
00:27:34,647 --> 00:27:39,960
By 1 853, his followers controlled
the vast Yangtze valley.

335
00:27:41,167 --> 00:27:43,442
Between 1850 and 1864,

336
00:27:43,487 --> 00:27:47,685
some 20 miIIion peopIe Iost their Iives
in centraI and southern China,

337
00:27:47,727 --> 00:27:52,278
as the Taiping RebeIIion raged,
unIeashing pIague and famine in its wake.

338
00:27:53,607 --> 00:27:57,316
But the rebels couldn't take
the imperial capital Beijing,

339
00:27:57,367 --> 00:28:00,325
and slowly the tide turned against them.

340
00:28:02,367 --> 00:28:05,564
By the time Nanjing fell
to the imperial army,

341
00:28:05,607 --> 00:28:08,565
Hong was already dead of food poisoning.

342
00:28:08,607 --> 00:28:16,195
Just to make sure, his cremated remains
were fired...out of a cannon.

343
00:28:22,487 --> 00:28:27,038
China's experiment with Christianity
had been a catastrophe.

344
00:28:28,167 --> 00:28:31,125
By the end of the 19th century,
many Chinese had concIuded

345
00:28:31,167 --> 00:28:32,566
that Western missionaries

346
00:28:32,607 --> 00:28:36,202
were just another maIign foreign infIuence
on their country.

347
00:28:40,287 --> 00:28:45,407
Time and again, in the next 50 years,
Protestantism lost out in China.

348
00:28:47,647 --> 00:28:52,163
Finally, just after the 1 949
Communist Revolution,

349
00:28:52,207 --> 00:28:57,918
the committed atheist Mao Tse-tung ordered
the expulsion of Christian missionaries,

350
00:28:57,967 --> 00:29:00,800
all 1 0,000 of them.

351
00:29:03,647 --> 00:29:05,842
Churches were closed down.

352
00:29:05,887 --> 00:29:08,003
Some were turned into factories.

353
00:29:12,727 --> 00:29:16,606
lt looked like the end of the line
for Protestantism in China

354
00:29:19,887 --> 00:29:26,076
and, as Communism swept all before it,
for the Protestant work ethic too.

355
00:29:31,247 --> 00:29:34,922
To Max Weber
and other 20-century experts, then,

356
00:29:34,967 --> 00:29:38,164
the probabiIity
of a Protestantization of China

357
00:29:38,207 --> 00:29:43,804
and, therefore, its industriaIization
and modernization seemed negIigibIy Iow.

358
00:29:43,847 --> 00:29:48,716
As Iow in fact as the probabiIity
of a de-Christianization of Europe.

359
00:29:48,767 --> 00:29:53,204
And yet that is preciseIy
what we've witnessed in our time.

360
00:29:59,487 --> 00:30:05,403
lt's a development that's having profound
economic implications all over the world.

361
00:30:06,567 --> 00:30:09,684
It's a funny thing -
aIthough I was brought up an atheist,

362
00:30:09,727 --> 00:30:13,845
I suffer from an extreme form
of the Protestant work ethic.

363
00:30:13,887 --> 00:30:18,677
No matter what my probIem is,
the soIution is aIways the same - work.

364
00:30:18,727 --> 00:30:22,561
Now, for many years I feIt as if I was
part of a dying minority in Europe.

365
00:30:22,607 --> 00:30:26,441
But today I find myseIf
in extremeIy good company.

366
00:30:26,487 --> 00:30:31,003
The Protestant work ethic, for so Iong
one of the West's kiIIer appIications,

367
00:30:31,047 --> 00:30:32,924
has come to China.

368
00:30:36,247 --> 00:30:42,004
Whereas the average European or American
works less than 2,000 hours a year...

369
00:30:43,207 --> 00:30:48,156
...the top Asian economies
average 2,300 hours.

370
00:30:49,727 --> 00:30:55,404
Moreover, unlike us, the Chinese
save up to a fifth of their income.

371
00:30:57,247 --> 00:31:03,117
Max Weber's idea of living to work
rather than working to live

372
00:31:03,167 --> 00:31:05,601
is now an Oriental phenomenon.

373
00:31:09,967 --> 00:31:11,366
And that's not all.

374
00:31:16,887 --> 00:31:18,479
The fascinating thing is

375
00:31:18,527 --> 00:31:21,758
that it's not just hard work and thrift
they're importing from the West.

376
00:31:21,807 --> 00:31:25,163
Now they're importing Christianity too.

377
00:31:25,207 --> 00:31:27,767
And not just any oId Christianity.

378
00:31:29,327 --> 00:31:33,081
The seeds the British missionaries
planted 1 50 years ago

379
00:31:33,127 --> 00:31:37,200
have grown
in the most extraordinary fashion.

380
00:31:39,807 --> 00:31:45,279
Wenzhou has become
the Springfield, Missouri, of China.

381
00:31:47,007 --> 00:31:52,639
Where before the Cultural Revolution
there were 480 churches in Wenzhou,

382
00:31:52,687 --> 00:31:56,760
today there are 1,340.

383
00:31:57,887 --> 00:32:01,880
And those are only the ones
officially approved by the government.

384
00:32:01,927 --> 00:32:06,364
All over Wenzhou,
and increasingly all over China,

385
00:32:06,407 --> 00:32:10,195
Christians also meet secretly
in their homes.

386
00:32:12,287 --> 00:32:15,518
The Victorian missionaries
would be impressed.

387
00:32:15,567 --> 00:32:18,923
It's Sunday, and the church is packed.

388
00:32:18,967 --> 00:32:21,959
Founded in 1877 by the InIand Mission,

389
00:32:22,007 --> 00:32:26,842
cIosed down during the CuIturaI RevoIution
and onIy re-opened in 1982,

390
00:32:26,887 --> 00:32:30,641
this church now boasts
a congregation of more than 1 ,200.

391
00:32:31,687 --> 00:32:36,761
The work ethic and Protestantism
are thriving in China.

392
00:32:36,807 --> 00:32:40,925
So, it won't surprise you
that here in Wenzhou,

393
00:32:40,967 --> 00:32:45,040
the most ardent Christians
tend also to be businessmen.

394
00:32:46,607 --> 00:32:52,876
lt's home to a new breed of entrepreneur,
the so-called ''Boss Christians''.

395
00:32:55,847 --> 00:33:01,956
Men like Hanping Zhang,
chairman of the Aihao pen company.

396
00:33:02,007 --> 00:33:06,797
Once a farmer,
he opened his first factory in 1 987.

397
00:33:09,007 --> 00:33:16,357
Today he employs 5,000 workers
and sells 500 million pens a year.

398
00:33:18,727 --> 00:33:21,161
He's also a devout Christian.

399
00:33:22,207 --> 00:33:24,243
(TRANSLATION)

400
00:33:28,487 --> 00:33:32,560
Does that mean
that in Wenzhou there's an advantage,

401
00:33:32,607 --> 00:33:37,681
that businessmen here are more trusted
than businessmen in other pIaces?

402
00:33:44,407 --> 00:33:48,844
Marx's old jibe that religion
was the opium of the people

403
00:33:48,887 --> 00:33:52,436
no longer carries much conviction here.

404
00:33:54,247 --> 00:34:00,004
The richer China gets, it seems,
the more people like Zhang there are.

405
00:34:01,967 --> 00:34:04,083
It's possibIe
that within the next three decades

406
00:34:04,127 --> 00:34:09,520
between 20 and 30% of the entire
Chinese popuIation couId be Christians.

407
00:34:09,567 --> 00:34:11,922
Now, that's a pretty amazing prospect.

408
00:34:11,967 --> 00:34:15,039
Just when you thought
the worId was turning Chinese,

409
00:34:15,087 --> 00:34:18,523
the Chinese turn around
and Westernise themseIves.

410
00:34:25,047 --> 00:34:28,881
lt's certainly not a result
Max Weber would have anticipated.

411
00:34:28,927 --> 00:34:32,886
Yet the Chinese Communist Party
recently stated

412
00:34:32,927 --> 00:34:37,205
there were three requirements
for sustainable economic growth -

413
00:34:37,247 --> 00:34:42,037
property rights as a foundation,
law as a safeguard,

414
00:34:42,087 --> 00:34:45,159
and morality as a support.

415
00:34:48,007 --> 00:34:51,477
If that sounds famiIiar, then it shouId,

416
00:34:51,527 --> 00:34:56,555
because those used to be the foundations
of Western civiIization itseIf.

417
00:34:56,607 --> 00:34:59,838
And I say ''used to be'' quite deIiberateIy,

418
00:34:59,887 --> 00:35:03,880
because I think we've Iost faith
in those very foundations.

419
00:35:03,927 --> 00:35:06,441
It's not just that the churches are empty.

420
00:35:06,487 --> 00:35:08,079
We seem to doubt the vaIue

421
00:35:08,127 --> 00:35:11,881
of everything that's been achieved
in the West since the Reformation.

422
00:35:11,927 --> 00:35:14,999
We've Iost faith
in those kiIIer appIications

423
00:35:15,047 --> 00:35:16,958
which, as we've seen in this series,

424
00:35:17,007 --> 00:35:20,886
decisiveIy set the West apart
from the rest.

425
00:35:24,367 --> 00:35:28,838
Capitalism has been disgraced
by the recent financial crisis

426
00:35:28,887 --> 00:35:31,799
and the rampant greed of the bankers.

427
00:35:33,367 --> 00:35:38,885
Science is studied by too few
of our children at school and university.

428
00:35:41,567 --> 00:35:44,923
Private property rights
are continually violated by governments

429
00:35:44,967 --> 00:35:50,405
with an insatiable appetite for taxing
our incomes and wasting our money.

430
00:35:53,767 --> 00:35:57,043
Empire has become a dirty word,

431
00:35:57,087 --> 00:36:01,717
despite the real benefits conferred on the
rest of the world by the European empires.

432
00:36:11,567 --> 00:36:15,321
AII we risk being Ieft with
is a vacuous consumer society

433
00:36:15,367 --> 00:36:16,766
and a reIativistic cuIture

434
00:36:16,807 --> 00:36:20,322
that regards any theory,
no matter how outIandish,

435
00:36:20,367 --> 00:36:24,076
as just as vaIid as whatever it was
we used to beIieve in.

436
00:36:24,127 --> 00:36:27,199
The troubIe is,
as GK Chesterton famousIy said,

437
00:36:27,247 --> 00:36:30,159
when men Iose their faith
they don't beIieve in nothing,

438
00:36:30,207 --> 00:36:32,004
they beIieve in anything.

439
00:36:33,247 --> 00:36:37,957
Today the West faces
unprecedented challenges.

440
00:36:40,047 --> 00:36:44,279
The rise of China
as a new economic superpower.

441
00:36:44,327 --> 00:36:46,158
(CALL TO PRAYER)

442
00:36:46,207 --> 00:36:51,156
The revival of lslam not just as a faith
but as a violent political ideology.

443
00:36:52,207 --> 00:36:56,723
Not to mention the environmental crisis
caused by rising population,

444
00:36:56,767 --> 00:37:00,726
carbon dioxide emissions and sea levels.

445
00:37:02,607 --> 00:37:05,485
How are we to contend with these threats

446
00:37:05,527 --> 00:37:10,442
if we can't even believe in ourselves,
let alone in God?

447
00:37:28,727 --> 00:37:32,402
For 500 years the West dominated the rest.

448
00:37:32,447 --> 00:37:35,803
And it did so by depIoying
six kiIIer appIications,

449
00:37:35,847 --> 00:37:39,840
six unique seIIing points
that the rest didn't have.

450
00:37:39,887 --> 00:37:42,162
CapitaIism, science,

451
00:37:42,207 --> 00:37:44,243
democracy, medicine,

452
00:37:44,287 --> 00:37:46,721
consumerism and the work ethic.

453
00:37:49,647 --> 00:37:51,478
But when I Iook at the worId today,

454
00:37:51,527 --> 00:37:54,246
it's the resembIances between the West
and the rest that strike me

455
00:37:54,287 --> 00:37:56,084
more than the differences.

456
00:37:56,127 --> 00:37:58,880
The things that used to set the West
apart from the rest

457
00:37:58,927 --> 00:38:02,476
are, quite simpIy,
no Ionger monopoIized by us.

458
00:38:05,407 --> 00:38:08,922
The Chinese have got capitalism.

459
00:38:08,967 --> 00:38:11,435
The lranians have got science.

460
00:38:13,527 --> 00:38:15,757
The Peruvians have got democracy.

461
00:38:17,607 --> 00:38:21,361
The Africans are slowly
getting modern medicine.

462
00:38:23,167 --> 00:38:26,716
The Turks have got the consumer society.

463
00:38:27,927 --> 00:38:32,045
The reality is that Western modes
of operation are not in decline

464
00:38:32,087 --> 00:38:35,284
but are flourishing nearly everywhere.

465
00:38:38,287 --> 00:38:41,165
The ''resterners'', as we might call them,

466
00:38:41,207 --> 00:38:44,597
are nearly all dressing, working,

467
00:38:44,647 --> 00:38:50,517
eating, travelling
and playing...like Westerners.

468
00:38:52,927 --> 00:38:58,559
All the West's killer apps
have become universal.

469
00:38:58,607 --> 00:39:01,280
But this carries its own dangers.

470
00:39:01,327 --> 00:39:03,318
Some wouId say these apps
are now so widespread

471
00:39:03,367 --> 00:39:06,200
that we risk kiIIing the pIanet itseIf.

472
00:39:06,247 --> 00:39:10,684
You can certainIy beIieve that, here
in the smog-infested heartIand of China.

473
00:39:15,807 --> 00:39:17,684
Environmentalists fear that

474
00:39:17,727 --> 00:39:22,482
as Asia's more populous nations
embrace the Western route out of poverty,

475
00:39:22,527 --> 00:39:27,157
the strain on global supplies
of energy, food and fresh water

476
00:39:27,207 --> 00:39:29,198
will become unbearable.

477
00:39:30,647 --> 00:39:33,878
Many peopIe Iive in dread
of the environmentaI consequences

478
00:39:33,927 --> 00:39:36,885
of Westernizing the entire worId.

479
00:39:36,927 --> 00:39:42,047
lf emissions of greenhouse gases
continue at their current levels,

480
00:39:42,087 --> 00:39:47,764
the result could be catastrophic changes
in the Earth's climate and ocean levels.

481
00:39:51,327 --> 00:39:56,003
Sceptics about climate change
should spend some time in China,

482
00:39:56,047 --> 00:39:59,960
where the biggest and fastest
industrial revolution in history

483
00:40:00,007 --> 00:40:03,841
is causing measurable
environmental damage.

484
00:40:03,887 --> 00:40:09,245
But does global warming
really mean the end of the world?

485
00:40:16,327 --> 00:40:19,876
This is the hill at Megiddo in lsrael,

486
00:40:19,927 --> 00:40:25,001
the scene in the New Testament of the
final showdown between good and evil...

487
00:40:26,407 --> 00:40:28,523
...the battle of Armageddon.

488
00:40:29,847 --> 00:40:31,121
I'm not a scientist,

489
00:40:31,167 --> 00:40:33,920
and it may weII be
that the Earth is going to boiI

490
00:40:33,967 --> 00:40:36,322
and the sea IeveIs are going to rise,

491
00:40:36,367 --> 00:40:40,599
but I can't heIp noticing that this vision
of an environmentaI apocaIypse

492
00:40:40,647 --> 00:40:44,435
has a Iot in common with earIier versions
of the doomsday story.

493
00:40:44,487 --> 00:40:45,886
And if you don't beIieve me,

494
00:40:45,927 --> 00:40:50,717
weII, take a Iook at chapter 16
of the Book Of Revelations.

495
00:40:51,967 --> 00:40:55,403
''And he gathered them together
into a Hebrew place,

496
00:40:55,447 --> 00:40:57,915
''in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. ''

497
00:40:57,967 --> 00:41:03,405
Get yourseIf together, puII yourseIf
together, bind yourseIf together.

498
00:41:03,447 --> 00:41:07,281
''And there were voices,
and thunders and lightnings,

499
00:41:07,327 --> 00:41:08,999
''and there was a great earthquake,

500
00:41:09,047 --> 00:41:13,120
''such as was not seen
since men were upon the Earth. ''

501
00:41:13,167 --> 00:41:20,198
The idea is this, the Lord is coming soon
and when he comes, your triaI wiII be won.

502
00:41:22,527 --> 00:41:24,199
Among the visitors to Megiddo,

503
00:41:24,247 --> 00:41:29,879
there's no shortage of believers in the
literal truth of that biblical prophecy.

504
00:41:31,007 --> 00:41:35,285
WOMAN: When you see what aII's going on
in the worId, tsunamis and earthquake,

505
00:41:35,327 --> 00:41:38,000
it's just got to be a sign
of what's coming.

506
00:41:38,047 --> 00:41:40,481
- Are you scared?
- No, because I know where I'm going.

507
00:41:40,527 --> 00:41:41,926
- ReaIIy?
- Uh-huh.

508
00:41:47,847 --> 00:41:52,637
Some say the first trumpet
has already sounded.

509
00:41:54,407 --> 00:41:58,082
Once we've heard the second,
third and fourth trumpets,

510
00:41:58,127 --> 00:42:03,155
evangelical Christians believe
the United States will collapse.

511
00:42:07,407 --> 00:42:12,435
When the fifth trumpet sounds,
World War lll will break out.

512
00:42:12,487 --> 00:42:17,686
After that comes a demonic army
to massacre mankind...

513
00:42:18,807 --> 00:42:25,485
...and with the seventh and final trumpet,
we'll feel the full might of God's wrath.

514
00:42:27,607 --> 00:42:29,563
The idea that we're aII doomed,

515
00:42:29,607 --> 00:42:32,644
that decIine is inevitabIe,
that things can onIy get worse,

516
00:42:32,687 --> 00:42:36,919
is deepIy bound up
with our own sense of mortaIity.

517
00:42:36,967 --> 00:42:39,162
Because we're bound to decIine and faII,

518
00:42:39,207 --> 00:42:43,041
we naturaIIy feeI that the civiIizations
we Iive in shouId do so too.

519
00:42:48,767 --> 00:42:50,723
People used to believe

520
00:42:50,767 --> 00:42:54,680
that all great civilizations
went through a long, slow cycle

521
00:42:54,727 --> 00:42:59,198
of rise, zenith, decline and fall.

522
00:42:59,247 --> 00:43:03,877
That was certainly how Gibbon
thought about ancient Rome.

523
00:43:03,927 --> 00:43:07,476
But in fact that isn't always the case.

524
00:43:09,167 --> 00:43:14,400
This amazing pIace is a grim reminder
that no civiIization is indestructibIe,

525
00:43:14,447 --> 00:43:17,405
no matter how mighty
it may appear in its own eyes.

526
00:43:17,447 --> 00:43:19,119
It's aIso a reminder

527
00:43:19,167 --> 00:43:24,036
that coIIapse, when it comes,
isn't necessariIy graduaI and cycIicaI.

528
00:43:24,087 --> 00:43:28,603
It came suddenIy, very suddenIy,
to the Incas who buiIt Machu Picchu.

529
00:43:28,647 --> 00:43:30,956
One minute, they were the masters
of aII they surveyed

530
00:43:31,007 --> 00:43:32,725
from their great Andean cities.

531
00:43:32,767 --> 00:43:37,079
The next, foreign invaders with gunpowder,
horses and IethaI microbes

532
00:43:37,127 --> 00:43:40,961
had smashed their great empire
to smithereens.

533
00:43:41,007 --> 00:43:45,717
How are the mighty faIIen.
And how fast they sometimes faII.

534
00:43:47,607 --> 00:43:51,646
ls the West today heading
for a similar calamity?

535
00:43:51,687 --> 00:43:53,678
l fear as much.

536
00:43:53,727 --> 00:43:56,082
But it doesn't need to be.

537
00:44:00,167 --> 00:44:04,683
When you hear that phrase
''Western civiIization'',

538
00:44:04,727 --> 00:44:06,877
what does it make you think of?

539
00:44:06,927 --> 00:44:09,885
Today it seems more important than ever

540
00:44:09,927 --> 00:44:14,921
that we understand the lessons
of Western civilization's success.

541
00:44:15,927 --> 00:44:18,600
That it isn't just one thing...

542
00:44:20,527 --> 00:44:22,438
...it's a bundle.

543
00:44:22,487 --> 00:44:26,400
So, the first one is competition.

544
00:44:27,727 --> 00:44:32,243
lt's about political pluralism
as well as capitalism.

545
00:44:35,567 --> 00:44:39,879
lt's about the freedom of thought
as well as the scientific method.

546
00:44:41,647 --> 00:44:47,040
lt's about the rule of law
and property rights, as well as democracy.

547
00:45:02,727 --> 00:45:08,438
Even today, the West still has more
of these killer apps than the rest.

548
00:45:10,087 --> 00:45:14,080
The Chinese don't have
political competition.

549
00:45:14,127 --> 00:45:18,245
The lranians don't have
freedom of conscience.

550
00:45:18,287 --> 00:45:21,359
They get to vote in Venezuela...

551
00:45:22,807 --> 00:45:26,641
...but the rule of law there is a sham.

552
00:45:28,167 --> 00:45:31,955
Of course Western civilization
isn't flawless.

553
00:45:32,007 --> 00:45:36,683
lt's certainly perpetrated
its share of historical misdeeds...

554
00:45:37,727 --> 00:45:41,003
...imperialism's bouts of brutality...

555
00:45:43,647 --> 00:45:46,798
...the banality of the consumer society...

556
00:45:48,047 --> 00:45:50,686
...shopping till it drops.

557
00:45:55,087 --> 00:45:59,763
And yet as I stand here in Shanghai,
in the smog,

558
00:45:59,807 --> 00:46:03,846
I can't heIp feeIing that
Western civiIization stiII has the edge.

559
00:46:03,887 --> 00:46:08,642
And the reason I think that is because
I'm free to think it and free to say it.

560
00:46:08,687 --> 00:46:12,566
And it's that freedom that's most IikeIy
to unIock the human creativity

561
00:46:12,607 --> 00:46:16,839
we need to soIve the worId's probIems
in the 21st century.

562
00:46:16,887 --> 00:46:21,756
So, perhaps the biggest threat we face
isn't our CO2 emissions,

563
00:46:21,807 --> 00:46:26,244
it's our Ioss of faith in the civiIization
we inherited from our ancestors

564
00:46:26,287 --> 00:46:29,245
and we gave to the rest of the worId.