“This is said to civilized men who are to venture into countries where sacred cows are fed, while children are left to starve – where female infants are killed or abandoned by the roadside – where men go blind, medical help being forbidden by their religion – where women are mutilated, to insure their fidelity – where unspeakable tortures are ceremonially inflicted on prisoners – where cannibalism is practiced. Are these the ‘cultural riches’ which a Western man is to greet with ‘brotherly love’? Are these the ‘valuable elements’ which he is to admire and adopt? Are these the ‘fields’ in which he is not to regard himself as superior? And when he discovers entire populations rotting alive in such conditions, is he not to acknowledge, with a burning stab of pride – of pride and gratitude – the achievements of his nation and his culture, of the men who created them and left him a nobler heritage to carry forward?”
–Ayn Rand, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal