The Uniqueness of Western Law

by Richard Storey

  Sensibility

  Of course, I wanted to call this factor ‘Rationalism’, but that doesn’t begin with S. Nevertheless, the meaning is the same — wisdom and prudence. It was Weber who pointed out the higher degree of rationalism in the European mindset, accounting for our desire to systematise all of our enterprises. This was of course what fuelled the kind of thinking which gave birth to the numerous civilising Revolutions of Europe, not least of all the Industrial. The most unique institution of the West is Law.

  Cold winters favoured those stricter adherents to the group’s honour code, designed for cooperation and survival. Even the ferocious Indo-Europeans, from whom Europeans are descended, developed libertarian aristocracies. Their legacy was the equity of free men, bound to each other in honour, oaths, and fealty. This, in turn, affected the development of Western systems of government. Up until the Late Medieval Period and the rise of modernism and consequent statism, Western civilisation was marked by being both advanced, yet without any proper states, but there was most certainly law and order to which all were accountable, including the king. This law, however, was private — something almost inconceivable to the mindset of Western man today.

  As Prof. Bruce L. Benson puts it:

  It is a widely held belief that state governments and law develop together and, therefore, that law and order could not exist in a society without the organized, authoritarian institutions of the state… [But,] law can be imposed from above by some coercive authority, such as a king, a legislature, or a supreme court, or law can develop ‘from the ground’ as customs and practice evolve.71

  The process of developing a rational system of law that is not simply some legislation imposed by authoritarian means was a uniquely European enterprise, prompting the late Prof. S. Prakash Sinha to develop his thesis that law itself is actually a unique, non-universal institution of Western Civilisation. All of Christendom benefited from these rational systems of law.

  Prof. Duchesne notes that the Church was able to maintain independent law-making ability for itself, as well as private courts across the continent, producing not just the ‘first comprehensive and rational systematization of law’, but turning all of Europe into a ‘warren of jurisdictions’ with numerous sources and kinds of private law — ‘which in turn resulted in the preconditions and the experience for a civil society where no authority, not even the pope or the king, had complete political, religious, or intellectual jurisdiction.’72 3 This stateless decentralisation would produce the very legal systems which still undergird most law around the world.

  As the renowned Prof. Jonathan Haidt’s almost unique study of libertarians concluded, libertarians have ‘a relatively cerebral, as opposed to emotional, cognitive style’.73 I have hypothesised that the greater number of Myers-Briggs ‘Rationalist’ personality types among whites might explain their superior, i.e. dominant, more rational and libertarian, legal systems.74

  Temperance

  The willingness to defer gratification, called ‘low time preference’, is crucial for advanced civilisations. Like all the above factors, this too can be partly explained by cold winters: As early humans migrated, they had to keep moving to avoid over-foraging and threats from competition. Some encountered increasingly colder environments and those who were unwilling to forgo the pleasure of consuming food immediately were unable to survive the harsher winters and thus became food for someone else.

  This produced a population better able and more willing to defer gratification with each successive generation. Lower time preference produced a culture with a superior work ethic and enabled the development of a population better able to sustain the various traits of Western civilisation, as identified by Prof. Ferguson and others. As discussed above, Europeans have their temperance to thank for those more libertarian systems of law and government which have informed so much of the West’s development.

  Temperance is not to be confused with timidity. Yes, cold winters, agriculture and trade favoured those who could smile and say, ‘Thank you, come again,’ but, whereas the East Asians have very low average levels of psychopathy and testosterone, European levels are significantly higher. Truly, we should be celebrating the social importance of our Faustian competition for self-mastery.

  Nietzsche sums it up well — ‘Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.’ This reminds me of John Wayne’s line in McLintock: ‘You’ve got to be a man first before you can be a gentleman.’ However, Nietzsche complained of this competition in temperance (especially as realised by Catholic Europe) and bemoaned the introduction of it as a virtue in Ancient Greece, and the complimentary recognition of hubris as a vice. Rather, I argue that this important development was the birth of the West as a ‘civilisation’ and the chivalric knight or gentleman as the ideal Western man, even the ideal king.

  Whereas oriental despotism legislated greater control of others, this was seen as the result of inner-weakness in the eyes of the ancient Greeks. For millennia, the Chinese lived under large centralised states which effectively domesticated their populations, resulting in the major differences identified above. It wasn’t a lack of strength but rather a show of tremendous inner strength which brought about the advanced stateless societies of old Europe.

  This Faustian desire to be recognised as the most composed and prudent ensured European/American libertarian systems of government and law for many centuries. It was no longer just the Indo-Europeans’ competition among aristocratic peers but the added competition in temperance, among all men, which limited the king’s dominium but not his imperium. That is, kings understood the long-term prudence of undertaking greater obligations for the good of their kinsmen, but not greater rights. What’s more, it was the Church which acted as that institution to ensure the rule of law (a necessary institution, as Carl Schmitt rightly identified) and encouraged kings to embody the ideal European man.

  This ideal was not just for kings to manifest but for all heads of houses. The process of encouraging all men towards the aristocratic virtues was being perfected by the Church; however, as Renaissance kings sought greater irresponsibility from the social obligations expected of them, this became an easier and more lucrative model for the populace to ape, particularly the bourgeoisie and the increasingly dominant merchant and banking classes of the cities. This attitude would produce the hyper-individualistic elements of modernism and the end of personalism in Europe. Hence, one mustn’t blame Christendom for the increasingly juvenile behaviour of Western man, but rather individuals who pass responsibility to an increasingly irresponsible state system of government. For such men, the short-term benefits outweigh the long.

  Nietzsche was wrong about temperance, just as he was about the Church. If we want our men to behave like men, we need them to be responsible, directly responsible for their families and the communities they form. This requires them to be strong enough to get the job done and temperate enough to make prudent long-term decisions.

  Conclusion

  These ‘killer apps’ make Western civilisation what it is — a combination of evolutionary factors, including genes and culture, not a tick-list to be mimicked by the rest of the world. We cannot be something we are not, nor can we expect the rest of the world to be just like us. We wouldn’t drop a Russian in the middle of the Australian desert and expect him to survive in the same way an aborigine does. Likewise, we should stop dreaming of the West making the world ‘safe for democracy’ or whatever else is in vogue with the political class. Also, we must bring an end to multicultural experiments which have only resulted in the endangerment of Western civilisation.

  Prof. Haidt, has predicted that an increasingly ‘diverse’ society will so reduce trust as to make it unsustainable and dangerous:

  A multiethnic society is a very hard machine to assemble and get aloft into the air. … Politics is always about factions, always about c
ompeting groups. … But in a world in which factions are based on race or ethnicity, rather than economic interests, that’s the worst possible world. It’s the most intractable world we can inhabit, and it’s the one that will lead to the ugliest outcome.75

  In short, the genocidal fascination with which immigration and diversification are imposed on the West does not spell a happy ending for any of the groups involved. The world is more interesting when there are variety and competition, and Western civilisation has and still benefits the world greatly. If this is to continue, the above factors must be maintained — a responsibility borne by us all.

  Chapter 4

  Source of the Faustian West

  After Achilles had defeated Hector in battle, his chariot dragged Hector’s corpse by the heels. Such was the hubristic spirit of our Indo-European ancestors — warrior nomads who conquered and ruled peoples from Europe to Asia, millennia before anyone had heard of Alexander. But the same spirit which restlessly pursued immortality in fame and glory would not only cause their European descendants to circumnavigate the globe and conquer its poles, but map the human genome also; not only has the white man needed to tower into the skies and conquer the moon, but that spirit has searched the depths of its own soul to master itself. Achilles was visited that night by Priam, King of Troy and father of Hector, who tearfully requested the burial of his son’s body and reminded Achilles of his own father. Achilles called a truce for the funeral — the honour of the magnanimous gentleman, Plato’s rational self-mastery, was born.

  Both inwards and outwards, rationally and empirically, with brains and brawn, the spirit of the white man has continued to restlessly pursue glory, pushing whatever boundary it perceives, conceptual or physical. Like Prometheus, we would flout the gods in order to victoriously bring illumination to mankind, ever reaching into the infinite, like Faust (the Prometheus of the Renaissance) — even if it will cost us our lives, like Frankenstein (The Modern Prometheus).

  Cattle die and kinsmen die,

  thyself too soon must die,

  but one thing never, I ween, will die,

  fair fame of one who has earned.

  — Hávamál, 75

  But what is it about Europeans that gives us this high ‘tendency towards the infinite’, as Spengler put it? What is the source of what he called the ‘Faustian’ spirit of the West?

  Sadly, the study of genes as they relate to race differences is yet another dogmatic boundary the white man finds himself confronted with in our time; but I am far from the first one to vault it. We Europeans find ourselves on the scale of most IQ measurements residing above Africans, but just under the East Asians (Japan, Korea and China). So what ‘x factor’ has caused us to be overwhelmingly overrepresented in the number of great intellectual achievements of the past 3000 years?76 I believe the answer lies in psychopathy.

  Now, it is worth repeating that psychopathy does not necessarily mean antisocial, sociopathic and violent traits, but rather includes very desirable qualities. Whites have a higher average level of psychopathy than East Asians, whose ancient despotic states have long since domesticated much individualistic assertiveness out of them.77 Yet we are moderate when compared to the average levels of Africans, which, as Prof. Richard Lynn has explained in his article, ‘Racial and Ethnic Differences in Psychopathic Personality’, leads to a higher average propensity to antisocial behaviour. This may sound mean-spirited, but my concern with the data is not to denigrate others so much as to better understand my own civilisation’s place. How then has this Faustian, moderate psychopathy helped manifest Western civilisation?

  In The Uniqueness of Western Civilization, Prof. Ricardo Duchesne has shown the origin of the Faustian spirit in the Indo-Europeans. These warlike aristocrats were only accepted as noble if they showed a willingness to sacrifice themselves in combat to achieve immortality for their name, which did not necessarily implicate any sexual conquest. Breeding for the trait of taking no thought for one’s own life (to the extent that naked, berserker warfare became their most noble form of combat) produced a rather psychopathic people in the Europeans. Associated with creativity, this psychopathic competition for glory and esteem led to the evolution of men who restlessly found a way to go beyond whatever was currently considered rational or possible; they invented new concepts, abilities and technologies. So our inherited genes have played a significant role in the great dance between blood and environment we call ‘culture’.

  You can tell a lot about a people by the symbols they use; we don’t need Jung to tell us that. The symbols used by the Indo-Europeans recurrently involved the rising sun. Just like them and the archetype of Prometheus, we restlessly reach out into void of the unknown, contrary to nature’s design, to bring back some fire, to cast its light on us and bring more abundant life. Long may we continue the immortal quest, to infinity and beyond.

  Chapter 5

  Is There a European Personality Type?

  The European is interested in the world, he wants to know it, to make this other confronting him his own, to bring to view the genus, law, universal, thought, the inner rationality, in the particular forms of the world. As in the theoretical, so too in the practical sphere, the European mind strives to make manifest the unity between itself and the outer world. It subdues the outer world to its ends with an energy which has ensured for it the mastery of the world.

  — Hegel, Philosophy of Mind

  I have become increasingly convinced that there is something unique to the psychology of Europeans — some traits which produced the highly rationalistic and empirical way we have conducted practical and intellectual endeavours for centuries. Spengler observed that Europeans can alone be characterised as having an infinite thirst for the as yet unknown — what he called the Faustian spirit. Weber, similarly, described the white man as possessing a higher degree of rationalism, leading to the West’s unique systematisation of law, religion and numerous other endeavours. But can we really identify a general personality type of the Europeans?

  Of course, any scientific study of the matter is heavily stigmatised in the current age of egalitarianism. Nevertheless, we still have enough data to produce a hypothesis. Prof. Raymond Moody sought to test Carl Jung’s theory of racial personality types, which he summarised thus:

  While he recognized that one’s psychological development is heavily influenced by the environment, Jung’s extensive research and clinical experience also led him to conclude that the basic features of personality are basically genetically determined, not only for individuals but for whole races and cultures as well.

  In other words, racial personality ‘types’ define our inborn predispositions, while culture permits or limits the ways in which those predispositions can be expressed as behaviour. Prof. Moody concluded that Jung was correct — there is ‘a stronger biological basis to culture than we have heretofore recognized.’78

  The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test was developed from Jung’s concept of typology, and it divided personalities into sixteen types. Influenced by Plato, the late Prof. David Keirsey helpfully categorised these into four temperaments; his adapted test is now one of the most widely used by employers worldwide.

  The Four Temperaments:

  As Concrete Cooperators, Guardians speak mostly of their duties and responsibilities, of what they can keep an eye on and take good care of, and they’re careful to obey the laws, follow the rules, and respect the rights of others.

  As Abstract Cooperators, Idealists speak mostly of what they hope for and imagine might be possible for people, and they want to act in good conscience, always trying to reach their goals without compromising their personal code of ethics.

  As Concrete Utilitarians, Artisans speak mostly about what they see right in front of them, about what they can get their hands on, and they will do whatever works, whatever gives them a quick, effective payoff, even if they have to bend the rules.

  As Abstract Utilitarians,
Rationals speak mostly of what new problems intrigue them and what new solutions they envision, and, always pragmatic, they act as efficiently as possible to achieve their objectives, ignoring arbitrary rules and conventions if need be.

  In his study, Prof. Moody examined students at the universities of Florida and Hawaii, concluding that, among Caucasians, ‘There are significantly fewer STs (p < .001) [Guardians and Artisans] and more NTs (p < .001) [Rationals].’ NTs are sometimes described as the ‘conceptualists’ — they possess a constant thirst for knowledge alongside a creative, innovative streak in the abstract and theoretical. This sounds a lot like Spengler’s Faustian spirit, doesn’t it? More interesting still, Prof. Keirsey originally named the Rational temperament, the Promethean — the mythological Titan, Prometheus, being the inspiration for the Renaissance character of Faust. Faustian spirit indeed!

  European Temperament

  Since his study, others have also found that ‘Caucasians...have a preference for Intuition’, that is, iNtuitive Thinking (NT).79 So, it appears this personality type is more common among Europeans, which would explain why they have dominated rationalistic schools of thought. For example, 94% of libertarians are non-Hispanic whites,80 and we have historically been more accepting of competing schools of thought, meaning that the past few millennia have seen Europeans overwhelmingly dominate the pursuit of philosophy.81