No Man Ever Looks At The World

The Crucial Differences Which Distinguish Human Societies And Human Beings Are Not Biological. They Are Cultural.

Racism Is An Ism To Which Everyone In The World Today Is Exposed; For Or Against, We Must Take Sides. And The History Of The Future Will Differ According To The Decision Which We Make.

Most People Are Shaped To The Form Of Their Culture Because Of The Enormous Malleability Of Their Original Endowment. They Are Plastic To The Moulding Force Of The Society Into Which They Are Born. It Does Not Matter Whether, With The Northwest Coast, It Requires Delusions Of Self-reference, Or With Our Own Civilization The Amassing Of Possessions. In Any Case The Great Mass Of Individuals Take Quite Readily The Form That Is Presented To Them.

No One Culture Has Ever Developed All Human Potentialities; It Has Always Selected Certain Capacities, Mental And Emotional And Moral, And Stifled Others. Each Culture Is A System Of Values Which May Well Complement The Values In Another.

... With Every Asiatic Country Where We Operate In Cooperation With The Existing Culture, The Need For Intelligent Understanding Of That Country And Its Ways Of Life Will Be Crucial. These Nations Will Very Likely Not Respond To Appeals With Which We Are Familiar, And Not Value Rewards Which Seem To Us Irresistible. The Danger--and It Would Be Fatal To World Peace--is That In Our Ignorance Of Their Cultural Values We Shall Meet In Head-on Collision And Incontinently Fall Back On The Old Pattern Of Imposing Our Own Values By Force.