ABSTRACT
The story of Western culture is, according to conventional wisdom, a story of progress, growth, and development. Western culture it is said, has been a grand experiment, wildly successful in its ability to transform the natural resources of a continent-and a globe-into the finished material an advanced civilization requires, such as automobiles, computers, military hardware, medical technology, and common consumer goods. Not long after the first European settlers established themselves on the American continent, the story of the American experiment began to circulate as story. We told it to ourselves while at church, at home, at work, and at rest, and of course, we told it to our children. Words and ideas such as God, destiny, freedom, frontier, enlightened self-interest, and technological progress-along with many others-were invoked in order to justify and extend the story of Western culture as a process that would, ultimately, engulf the “new” world. First the Bible and later science became supported and defended by what appeared to be the American’s “Godgiven” right to dominate and subjugate.
