Western civilization has not escaped universal civilizational evolutionary patterns

Evidence

The West obviously differs from all other civilizations that have ever existed in that it has had an overwhelming impact on all other civilizations that have existed since 1500. It also inaugurated the processes of modernization and industrialization that have become worldwide, and as a result societies in all other civilizations have been attempting to catch up with the West in wealth and modernity. Do these characteristics of the West, however, mean that its evolution and dynamics as a civilization are fundamentally different from the patterns that have prevailed in all other civilizations? The evidence of history and the judgments of the scholars of the comparative history of civilizations suggest otherwise. The development of the West to date has not deviated significantly from the evolutionary patterns common to civilizations throughout history. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 831

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with modernization-theory claims of Western uniqueness — connects to Toynbee and Spengler, and to Huntington’s own earlier chapters on civilization cycles. — connects to: European civilization rests on a hidden underground history of displaced instincts; The concept of civilization emerged only in the modern era — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 37