Here is link number one, looking at our demise from the POV of the Taliban and almost any other culture we assume must not be as bad as we are. It's odd, but multiculturalism has brainwashed so many Westerners into clinging to the idea that only in the Christian West is evil manifested. No matter what non-Westerners actually do that's evil, that 'West=Evil' framework is still the rock solid basis for modern leftwing thinking. Let people who may or may not be terrorists fly jets into our skyscrapers, killing thousands in the process, and the almost knee-jerk reaction will be 'what did we do to make them hate us?'. As we watch the Taliban set up another terror state, don't expect it or the suffering of millions under their rule to do much to stop that suicidal notion in the West that we alone have no right to exist. Against forces with a strong sense of self and worth, don't expect the West - with no sense of self or worth - to last much longer.
Here's number two, in which the long, slow decline of the Western values is kicked around. The loss of virtue is a key point, with the subsequent loss in real concern for our own civilization . The Left has almost sanctified hating everything and everyone having to do with the civilization we inherited. A key feature of this strategy has been to turn as many generations as possible into drugged up, sexed up, narcissistic nihilists. Who cares? That's the mantra of so many, unless caring is a way to declare my superiority to my neighbor. And if someone's grandchildren get what we deserve, all the better. Compared to that, cultures and movements like the Taliban or Communist China or Islam, or even the still hobbling along former Soviet Union, will have little trouble mopping the floor with what's left of the country once called land of the free and home of the brave.
Last and by no means least, number three is an interesting reflection on the year in the 1990s that Western culture officially died. I'm sure people could quibble about the date, but I'm finding more and more recognize that it was some time in the 1990s that the bottom fell out.
There were still some glimmers I think. There seemed to be a sort of 'patriotic' renaissance of sorts, with Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and similar fare. You could also see some of that across the ocean in BBC productions. But it was short lived and all but wiped out a few years after 9/11. So 1996 as the year it began to die? You decide.
At the end of the day, we know the West is dying, and most likely dead. Even in my pastoring days, we used to say it's no longer a question of if, but of when, Western Civilization will be a thing of the past. That was said particularly of Europe. By the early 2000s, it looked more and more like America deserved to be added to the list. Not if but when the West would be gone, that was the only question.
Now, the question is if the West has already died and we didn't notice, or if it's merely in Hospice, counting the hours. Probably a cool third of those raised in the West will be happy to see it die, since they've bought into the idea that were it not for the Christian West, there likely would be no evil in the world. Another batch - let's say a third for fun - is like so many former defenders of the West, and that's people wondering when a good time to jump ship will be. For now, we won't get into those outside of the West who are no doubt happy to see this turn of events.
Fulton Sheen, shortly before he died, said that Christendom (which is probably synonymous with the West as we know it), was dead. Christ was not dead, but Christendom was - already then at the end of the 70's he said this! He was probably right because even then the pagan practice of abortion was reinstituted with not much push back from Church leadership. Someone once shared that a Protestant minister said that if the Catholic bishops wanted abortion to end then it would end. I don't know if that was actually said or who said it, but it rang absolutely true to me.
ReplyDeleteMy time table of the fallout would actually be around 1988 with the election of George Bush Sr. and accelerated with the elevation of the Baby Boomer golden boy Clinton in '92. Add the internet into the mix mid 90's and it accelerated even more. Most disappointing to me has been what seemed to be a Catholic renaissance in the 90's and early 2000's that just seemed to peter out at some point. At least it didn't bear the projected fruits many of us were hoping for. Reasons for which are probably better discussed elsewhere, but just an observation.
However, as per usual, the seeds of such collapse were probably planted a long time ago. Probably even before the Protestant revolt, of which this is really the ultimate fruition of. You can't separate yourself from authority in truth to follow your "own truth" and not have disintegration.
I think two things have developed where everyone agrees: the rot was happening for a long, long time before we hit that point of no return, and second, that point of no return was somewhere between the 80s and the 00s. It could just be the end of the Cold War offered the opportunity for those who wanted to ditch the Western Democracies that chance they didn't have while the USSR existed. Now that the USSR is old history, you have more and more young people wondering what the problem was. Hence a Brit survey that found over 30% of Brit college kids would prefer USSR style communism over living in a Western Democracy.
Delete" Add the internet into the mix mid 90's and it accelerated even more."
ReplyDeleteThis is what concerns me the most, the speed at which these changes have come. Look back 20 years ago we would not have recognized the world we are living in. Nor 10 or 5 years back. What's in store is beyond me but I would tend to believe we are going to see worse. A lot worse.
The speed is certainly a shocker. If it was just the United States, it might not be so. After all, the US rose pretty quickly in terms of historical empires. To die quickly makes sense. But almost the whole of Western Civilization is being dismantled and dispensed with in a generation. That's the shocker.
DeleteThe Roman Empire took centuries to rise and centuries to fall.
ReplyDeleteNapoleon's Empire took a few years to rise and a few years to fall.
The Nazi Empire followed a similar timescale.
America took about a century to conquer a continent.
There are other factors, but it seems as if modern technology causes things move at a faster pace. The faster an Empire rises, the faster it falls.
(Granted, the original Arab Caliphate, Mongol Empire and Tamerlan's conquest rose and fell fairly quickly, but they all had certain technological advantages over their neighbors).
As I said to OC above, if it was just the US dying this quickly, you could almost see it since the US was a Johnny-come-lately on the world stage anyway. But the full assault on the whole of Western Civ, when even in my college days the most liberal professors still acknowledged a boon to the world from Western Society, is the surprising development.
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