Western self-criticism as moral exception vindicates the civilization that produced it

Evidence

In having practiced sexism, racism, and imperialism, the West was merely following the common practice of mankind through the millennia of recorded history. Where it is distinct from all other civilizations is in having recognized, named, and tried, not entirely without success, to remedy these historic diseases. And that is surely a matter for congratulation, not condemnation. We do not hold Western medical science in general, or Dr. Parkinson and Dr. Alzheimer in particular, responsible for the diseases they diagnosed and to which they gave their names. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1569

Categorization

• XREF: This frames self-critique as Western exceptionalism — the direct inverse of the reader’s cluster reading (Western critique of Islam as power-serving). Contrasts with the Frankfurt School’s finding that self-critique can itself be a domination technique.