Thor Heyerdahl Quotes

Yes, I would agree that America, just like Spain was in the 17th Century, is the main empire of the world and they are the ones who, on the surface, are the most pushy: pushing their language, pushing their culture - or what there is of it - pushing by force their system on others.

It is through the European that civilization arrives ... precisely because of their superiority, the civilized people our responsible for an evolving world.

We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization.

So ubiquitous is Western influence that most of the time it is no longer seen as an alien element intruding into non-Western societies. It is an influence that has become integrated into the mind and body, the heart and soul of the non-Western human being. Western dominance, in other words, has become normal, it has become natural. By making it so natural and so normal to be 'Western', the centres of power in the West have achieved their ultimate triumph.

When the survival strategy of a civilization is invalidated, in all of human history none have ever turned back from the brink.

Western civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known.

Often, these downplay the power of cultural imperialism - in that sense, playing the game of US interests - by reassuring us that the global success of American mass culture is not as bad as all that.

One thing that is not to be underestimated is American culture's influence on the rest of the world.

Every great movement in the history of Western civilization from the Carolingian age to the nineteenth century has been an international movement which owed its existence and its development to the cooperation of many different peoples.

The next war... may well bury Western civilization forever.

History shows us that other highly developed forms of civilization have collapsed. Who knows whether the same fate does not await our own?

It will take a long time, and certainly the West will remain the dominant civilization well into the next century, but the decline is occurring.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

Barbarians always think of themselves as the bringers of civilization.

The present aristocracy of western culture, at the moment when it most clearly dominates the world, is being imitated rapidly and successfully in every eastern country.

The problem in Hollywood is that they try to become the only kind of cinema in the world, okay? The imposition everywhere of a unique culture, which is Hollywood culture, and a unique way of life, which is the American way of life.

History shows that our way of life is the stronger way. From it has come more wealth, more industry, more happiness, more human enlightenment than from any other way.

World history is the history of the great cultures.

The French view globalization as synonymous with Americanization, the cultural imperialism that has filled France with bad food, bad films, and English words.

It is plainly evident that some people who copy the polytheists in their clothes, manners, traditions or speak their language, harbor love and admiration for them. In this way, the polytheists succeed in disseminating ideas such as globalization and a universal religion which affect some sick-hearted Muslims; all of these aim at weakening the Muslim character and identity.

We are committing cultural suicide. The barbarians at the gate will only need to give us a slight push, and the emancipated body of Western civilization will collapse in a heap.

Unlike more traditional conquerors, we are not content merely to subdue others: We insist that they be like us.

We are the Romans of the modern world—the great assimilating people.

When you start exporting ideas, philosophy, behavior, products, ways of living, it becomes an assault on the culture. Americans have to understand that.

We must save America from the missionary idea that you must get the whole world on to the American way of life. This is really a big world danger.