What's Wrong with Western Culture?

What’s wrong with Western culture? We try to systematize and explain too much. We use too many words to express our ideas and feelings, and we have lost what the Chinese American writer Lin Yutang calls “humanized thinking.” We spend too much effort trying to categorize and classify ideas, and we have lost sight of the integrated wholeness of life. We have lost the spirit of being reasonable, and those who spend time arguing a point, which is what most of our news and social commentators do in the media, are wasting their efforts trying to prove who is right and who is wrong. To hell with trying to prove rightness and wrongness. Better to have compassion for human suffering then try to explain why suffering happens with pure logic. Pure logic is devoid of compassion, and those who are logicians have forgotten how to be generous of spirit. Descartes declared “I think therefore I am,” and Walt Whitman said, “I am sufficient as I am.” I prefer Whitman’s belief because it is more human. And like Whitman, our culture needs to be less concerned with correctness – political or otherwise – and more willing to accept human diversity and to look with humility at the mystery and grandeur of life.