*Where is the West?* By Thomas Sowell Thursday, November 9, 2006
European nations protesting Saddam Hussein's death sentence, as they
protested against forcing secrets out of captured terrorists, should
tell us all we need to know about the internal degeneration of western
society, where so many confuse squeamishness with morality.
Two generations of being insulated from the reality of the
international jungle, of not having to defend their own survival
because they have been living under the protection of the American
nuclear umbrella, have allowed too many Europeans to grow soft and
indulge themselves in illusions about brutal realities and dangers.
The very means of their salvation have been demonized for decades in
anti-nuclear movements and protesters calling themselves "anti-war."
But there is a huge difference between being anti-war in words and
being anti-war in deeds.
How many times, in its thousands of years of history, has Europe gone
60 years without a major war, as it has since World War II? That peace
has been due to American nuclear weapons, which was all that could
deter the Soviet Union's armies from marching right across Europe to
the Atlantic Ocean.
Having overwhelming military force on your side, and letting your
enemies know that you have the guts to use it, is being genuinely anti-
war. Chamberlain's appeasement brought on World War II and Reagan's
military buildup ended the Cold War.
The famous Roman peace of ancient times did not come from
negotiations, cease-fires, or pretty talk. It came from the Roman
Empire's crushing defeat and annihilation of Carthage, which served as
a warning to anyone else who might have had any bright ideas about
messing with Rome.
Only after the Roman Empire began to lose its own internal cohesion,
patriotism and fighting spirit over the centuries did it begin to
succumb to its external enemies and finally collapse.
That seems to be where western civilization is heading today.
Internal cohesion? Not only does much of today's generation in western
societies have a "do your own thing" attitude, defying rules and
flouting authority are glorified and Balkanization
through "multiculturalism" has become dogma.
Patriotism? Not only is patriotism disdained, the very basis for pride
in one's country and culture is systematically undermined in our
educational institutions at all levels.
The achievements of western civilization are buried in histories that
portray every human sin found here as if they were peculiarities of
the west.
The classic example is slavery, which existed all over the world for
thousands of years and yet is incessantly depicted as if it was a
peculiarity of Europeans enslaving Africans. Barbary pirates alone
brought twice as many enslaved Europeans to North Africa as there were
Africans brought in bondage to the United States and the American
colonies from which it was formed.
How many schools and colleges are going to teach that, going against
political correctness and undermining white guilt?
How many people have any inkling that it was precisely western
civilization which eventually turned against slavery and began
stamping it out when non-western societies still saw nothing wrong
with it?
How can a generation be expected to fight for the survival of a
culture or a civilization that has been trashed in its own
institutions, taught to tolerate even the intolerance of other
cultures brought into its own midst, and conditioned to regard any
instinct to fight for its own survival as being a "cowboy"?
Western nations that show any signs of standing up for self-
preservation are rare exceptions. The United States and Israel are the
only western nations which have no choice but to rely on self-defense -
- and both are demonized, not only by our enemies but also by many in
other western nations.
Australia recently told its Muslim population that, if they want to
live under Islamic law, then they should leave Australia. That makes
three western nations that have not yet completely succumbed to the
corrosive and suicidal trends of our times.
If and when we all succumb, will the epitaph of western civilization
say that we had the power to annihilate our enemies but were so
paralyzed by confusion that we ended up being annihilated ourselves?
//Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author
of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy
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