Erla Zwingle on Westernization

“Critics of Western culture blast Coke and Hollywood but not organ transplants and computers. Boosters of Western culture can point to increased efforts to preserve and protect the environment yet they make no mention of some less salubrious aspects of Western culture, such as cigarettes and automobiles, which, even as they are being eagerly adopted in the developing world, are having disastrous effects. Apparently Westernization is not a straight road to hell, or to paradise either.”
–Erla Zwingle, National Geographic, August 1999