# A Living Civilization Lets the Unborn Reconsider Its Inheritance by Bryant McGill > “A civilization sufficiently confident to preserve its accomplishments, sufficiently honest to preserve its crimes, sufficiently intelligent to distinguish the two and sufficiently free to allow people not yet born to reconsider the distinction.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Authorship of the West, September 2026* ## Sources and Context - **Exact article wording:** “A civilization sufficiently confident to preserve its accomplishments, sufficiently honest to preserve its crimes, sufficiently intelligent to distinguish the two and sufficiently free to allow people not yet born to reconsider the distinction.” — [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] (September 22, 2026). - **Context:** This is one half of the article’s closing definition of a whole, revisable Western inheritance. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/War With Empire|War With Empire]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/How Europe's Refuse Built the Apex Civilization Called America|How Europe's Refuse Built the Apex Civilization Called America]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] - [[wiki/Civilizational Payload|Civilizational Payload]] - [[wiki/Preservation|Preservation]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “A civilization sufficiently confident to preserve its accomplishments, sufficiently honest to preserve its crimes, sufficiently intelligent to distinguish the two and sufficiently free to allow people not yet born to reconsider the distinction.” — Bryant McGill, Authorship of the West, September 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bryant-mcgill-living-civilization-unborn-reconsider ```