For decades, Westerners have been told they have a lot to apologise for. Their ancestors, their history, their culture, even the civilisation they inherited have all been portrayed as things to be ashamed of rather than grateful for.
And perhaps the most remarkable thing is how many people went along with it.
We’ve reached the absurd point where a Westerner is expected to accept responsibility for his ancestors’ sins while being discouraged from taking any pride in their achievements. Apparently, the guilt is hereditary, but the glory isn’t.
This nonsense has done enormous damage to the West. What sort of people can be expected to defend a civilisation they’ve spent their lives being told was built on nothing but oppression and injustice? Why preserve something you’ve been taught the world would be better off without?
But something is changing, and you can see it particularly among younger generations.
There’s a renewed interest in ancestry, heritage, and the old homelands. People are digging into their family histories, learning about their ancestors, rediscovering old customs, and developing an affection for the places and peoples from which they came.
For many of Anglo-Celtic and European descent, it’s a rediscovery of something previous generations took for granted: that they belong to a people with a history, a homeland, and an inheritance worth preserving.
And there’s nothing remotely shameful about that.
We can acknowledge the wrongs of the past without pretending there was nothing good about the people who came before us. And there was an extraordinary amount of good.
Our ancestors built churches, universities, institutions, towns, and nations. They produced great works of art, literature, architecture, and music. They handed down laws, liberties, traditions, and customs that helped shape the world we live in.
Were they perfect? Obviously not. But why on earth should perfection be the condition for gratitude?
What’s particularly telling is the hostility this renewed interest in European heritage attracts. We’re forever being told to respect other peoples’ cultures, celebrate their traditions, and recognise the importance of their ancestral ties. Yet when Westerners express the same affection for their own, we’re suddenly warned about the dangers of nationalism, racism, and the far right.
Well, people are getting tired of it.
And I suspect the harder they’re pushed to disown their heritage, the more determined they’ll become to rediscover it.
White guilt has had its decades in the sun. It has taught generations to look at their inheritance with contempt and mistake that contempt for moral virtue.
But you cannot build a future on an endless apology for the past. We owe it to those who come after us to know what we inherited, cherish what was good in it, and pass it on.