The Betrayal of the West

Thesis: Friedman's analysis of world civilizations lead him to conclude that Western technological innovation, energy, and respect for individual liberty was the cause of world wide political transitions.

x- Western thinkers often criticize their own nations while forgetting they were the source of beneficial political reforms worldwide

x-Western cultural intrusion, while harmful, was the key factor in advancing the idea of men protecting their own personal freedom- from the Greeks to the Romans, we see a growth in intellectual and institutional liberty as Western society progressed

x- Many current day political shifts worldwide are a direct result of the West as states are moving away from past means of determining freedom such as wealth

x- The West's technological power and range of values for justice allowed it to give the world the energy it needed for reform