Our universal civilization by v&s naipaul biography

Our Universal Civilization unedited transcript. October 30, New York City. I've given this talk the title of Our Universal Civilization. It is a rather big title, and I am a little embarrassed by it. I feel I should explain how it came about. I have no unifying theory of things. To me situations and people are always specific, always of themselves.

That is why one travels and writes: to find out. To work in the other way would be to know the answers before one knew the problems. That is a recognized way of working, I know, especially if one is a political or religious or racial missionary. But I would have found it hard.

V. S. Naipaul is author

That was why I thought, when this invitation to talk came, that it would be better for me to find out what kind of issues members of the Institute were interested in. Myron Magnet, a senior fellow of the Institute, was in England at the time. We talked on the telephone; and then, some days later, he sent me a handwritten list of questions.

They were very serious questions, very important. Are we—are communities—as strong only as our beliefs? Is it enough for beliefs or an ethical view to be passionately held?