We built a great western civilization largely on the basis of ideology. Chief among them, natural rights. The most beautiful and famous declaration of this ideo

We built a great western civilization largely on the basis of ideology. Chief among them, natural rights. The most beautiful and famous declaration of this ideology is in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. [...] But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." This itself is an evolution and addition to much older Christian ideas about human dignity, care for the poor, love of fellow man, and duty to do good.