I have not study enough to have in-depth knowledge about Western Civilization and its philosophy. So I may get to much into generalization when calling Western Civilization itself as the root cause of our modern social problems. But I do not made such a postulation without some bases. To the minimum, I do find a striking difference in ancient Eastern Philosophy (at least Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Hinduism ) versus modern prevalent western mainstream thoughts. And we can not deny there are elements of Western Civilization, at the trunk level of philosophical thoughts that brings the chaos of our modern malaria.
Non-duality is the common theme of the three different systems of ancient eastern philosophy: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. In summary is the teaching of ONE, the yoga (unity) of human with the universe, the resonates of Heaven, Earth and Human. (天人感应）。 Human body is the miniature universe, and universe is the cosmic version of human body; 宇宙是大人身，人身是小宇宙。 Thus Confucianism say: 吾道一以贯之； Buddhism upholds：一真法界；三界唯心，万法唯识；Taoism’s maxim: 一生二 (天地），二生三 （天地人），三生万物 （生生不息的循环）； 无极生太极，太极生两极，两极生四象，四象生八卦.
René Descartes is often credited with being the “Father of Modern Philosophy.” This title is justified due both to his break with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy prevalent at his time and to his development and promotion of the new, mechanistic sciences. Descartes is also often called The Father of Dualism, due to his proposing the theory of substance dualism, or Cartesian dualism. Dualism is a theory which entails the belief that the mind and the body are two completely separate substances. His most famous quotes: ” I think, therefore I am.” has influenced the western mind for the last 500 years, and still grip a strong holds today in many disciplines of science and technology, as well as social psyche and political /economic issues. This metaphysical view had limited the development of western consciousness. I have talked about this in a series articles argue about the fallacies in his reasoning: I think, therefore I am ? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
When we are physically sick, we need to seek doctors and take medicine; when we are psychologically sick, we need to do reflection and self introspection; and when we go astray and get lost, we need to study/analyze map to see where we get off the main road. We should learn to take responsibility for our own problems and mistakes, rather than blame on others for our lagging. To that point, Confucius said, one out of three person can be my teacher. (三人行必有我师。） He emphasized the important virtue of modesty and learning from each other. As mortals, no one can avoid mistake and wrong doing, so he kept on stressing the common-sense of correcting mistakes in the journey of self cultivation. How do we get awareness? We learn from others and do self observation. If we do not have self conscience, we can bogged down deeper and deeper. 子曰：“过而不改，是谓过矣。” 人非圣贤、孰能无过。其实，圣贤不过是高明一些的人，也会犯错误。像孔子这样的圣人，还说过“丘也幸，苟有过，人必知之”，可见他也是犯过错误的。圣人尚且如此，普通大众更是在所难免。但是孔子很重视改过，并多次谈及这一问题。在《学而》篇中，孔子说：“过，则勿惮改。” 也就是说，犯错并没有什么可怕的，关键是如何对待错误。这个态度非常重要，它关系到我们是在错误中成长，还是在错误里沉沦的问题。
Take the example of native American Indian tribe’s culture and tradition, their culture to acting in align with heaven and earth is something the western white culture should learn to appreciate. Since the Columbus discovery of the new continent, the westerner tend to believe in the superiority of their white western cultures and look down Native American Indians as need to assimilate to the western way ( to simply “civilize” the Native Americans). . As such the western conquerors savagely treated the native American Indians. The Trail of Tears not only took place in the early American history, It is still happening today. A century of trauma at U.S. boarding schools for Native American children told us the tears today. American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many!
With those horror stories of hippocratic, how can we explain to the world American democracy and universal value of equality? The rational thinking and intuitions fall apart! What we communicate to the world is at discord to what we feel at gut level.