In 1200 B.C., worldwide civilization fell into ruin. That is only partially an overstatement. The Americas and Asia were on a separate path, but the Mediterranean complex of civilizations, the “known world,” was all but destroyed. It was laying the foundation of Western Civilization, which is the modern worldwide standard for science, technology, human rights, and self-government — and critically, an enduring monotheistic society.
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The Bronze Age collapse took about a century, but that is sudden in terms of history. Before 1300 B.C. there was a network of prosperous, stable kingdoms. Then, shortly thereafter, everything went wrong at once. Volcanoes and invasions were the headline causes, but numerous other factors came into play. The result was the destruction of mighty empires. Thriving cities fell into ruin. Trade routes were cut. Barbarians massacred entire populations.
Recovery took centuries, but here we are, enjoying yet another golden age of worldwide prosperity. Yes, there are dark spots and open sores in the picture, but day to day, most people awaken to indoor plumbing and controlled temperatures. They enjoy breakfast, and they thrive within family, career, and comfort.
It could all come crashing down in a lifetime or less.
In the 1980s, cultural revolutionaries chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western civ has got to go.” If no one took them seriously at the time, we do now, because they are getting their wish.
Witness Europe. The aforementioned modern worldwide standard for science, etc. is being eroded. Invaders who once were repelled at the walls have now been invited in through the gates, and given food, shelter, medical care, and freedom. In return, they plunder, rape, and murder their benefactors. The revolution continues.
All of this was not only eminently predictable, but actually predicted. Hungary and Poland sounded the warning loud and clear, as did classic liberals throughout Europe and the anglosphere. Today, those two nations are the safest and most stable countries in Europe, yet they are excoriated by the others for practicing the very policies that make them the shining examples of what the continent could be. The lepers are screaming at the healthy, “Be like us!”
Is a reversal of the currently unfolding self-destruction possible? Yes, but the bandage must be painfully ripped off. Mass deportation, previously unthinkable to the leftist mind, is now being seriously discussed as a necessity. Painful solutions, however, are not something ignorant populations accept, or even understand.
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As our Founders understood, evils will be suffered while they are sufferable, but eventually, they become neither tolerable nor tolerated. What happens when the evils are so deeply embedded that removing them is not merely painful, but destructive of the institutions of power?
Embedded they are. Western Europe, which was once the bastion of all that is valuable in a free society, has fallen into a state of what can only be called terminal madness — a state in which the cure is deemed to be the disease, and vice versa.
Worse yet, Canada and Australia, legendary allies and partners of the United States, are falling headlong into the same mire. Mires, almost by definition, only get worse, pulling their victims ever downward the more they struggle to extricate themselves. Canada will soon discover this, courtesy of its new friends in Communist China.
In the 1940s, European civilization was on the brink of final collapse. The economies of Italy and Germany had become so distressed that brutal dictatorships were installed as a solution, bringing ever more ruin. Will history repeat itself?
There is hope. Bronze was never the best metal; iron is better, but iron is more difficult to forge than the copper-tin alloy of bronze. Only when the supplies of tin were cut off were the metalsmiths forced to resort to the more abundant, and stronger, elemental iron. It had been there all along, available the whole time. (Does this give greater meaning to the word irony?)
By analogy, multiculturalism is the weak alloy of various, incompatible cultures. The values of Western civilization are the iron — difficult to practice but superior values to which we must return. Europe can survive, but it will have to be dragged, kicking and screaming (and worse) the whole way.
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Viva Hungary. Viva Poland.
Image: CristianIS via Pixabay, Pixabay License.