Slavery had very little to do with the economic success of the West. Just look at the facts and figures and how much slavery actually contributed to development.

Western society is a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives; it is a society of boundless private charity; it is a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth.

The implausible, well-nigh-miraculous functioning anarchy that we know as New York is adorned with every excellence of Western art. It is a city of manifold suggestions, which ministers to every ambition, engenders a thousand talents, nurtures ingenuity and experimentation.

It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing and defending their rights. The notions of freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts of self-criticism.

The idea that the West was economically successful because of slavery, it's just nonsense.

Each time you admire the façade of the New York Public Library, you are paying homage to Western civilization.

Monotheism is in its turn doomed to subtract one more God and become atheism