Giving back in that sense means acknowledging an obligation to those who went before us and for the institutions and values that enable us to prosper today. But there is little of this spirit of gratitude and loyalty in many of those who urge us to "give back."

A classic example is slavery, which is repeatedly drummed into our heads -- in the schools and media -- as something unique done by white people to black people in the United States.

The tragic fact is that, for thousands of years, people of every race and color have been both slaves and enslavers.

The Europeans enslaved on the Barbary Coast of North Africa alone were far more numerous than all the Africans brought to the United States and the 13 colonies from which it was formed.

What was unique about Western civilization was that it was the first civilization to turn against slavery. It stamped out slavery not only in its own societies but in other societies around the world during Western imperialism.