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The West Cannibalizes Itself
The American Conservative ^ | 03-30-2018 | Robert W. Merry

Posted on 03/31/2018 8:01:07 AM PDT by NRx

What civilization has ever sought to repudiate its own culture and traditions as we do today?

...And of course the assault on the Western heritage from within is a potent phenomenon in Europe, fostered by nearly the entire elite structure of the civilization. Thus it isn’t clear what a few highly accomplished intellectuals, however eloquent or anguished, can do to stem the erosion of the civilizational identity. But we are witnessing the emergence of some powerful political currents within the general European population, manifest in increasingly populist voting patterns in France, Germany, Austria, and elsewhere. Hence the Paris Statement could become a significant intellectual underpinning for Europeans who are increasingly concerned about the direction of things in their homeland.

The threat to Europe, says the Statement, comes from “a false understanding” of what Europe is and represents. This “false Europe” is the product of people who are “orphans by choice,” glorifying their vision “as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.” Believing that history is on their side, these patrons of the false Europe have become “haughty and disdainful, unable to acknowledge the defects in the post-national, post-cultural world they are constructing.” The false Europe, says the statement, is “utopian and tyrannical.”

The true Europe, on the other hand, encompasses a number of fundamental elements—a body of law that applies to all yet is limited in its demands; a shared understanding of political and cultural traditions and a fealty to those traditions; an appreciation of the nation state as “the political form that joins peoplehood with sovereignty”; a shared regard for the role of the Classical tradition in shaping the Western mind; and an understanding of Christianity as the religious bulwark of the civilization.

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: europe; hijrah; sidebarabuse; thewest
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1 posted on 03/31/2018 8:01:07 AM PDT by NRx
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To: NRx

The West, now without God and Judaeo-Christian law and ethics, has become suicidal. Not surprising, just tragic for those of us who remain steadfast.


2 posted on 03/31/2018 8:03:18 AM PDT by alstewartfan (Lines of coffee cups on parade. Soldiers for keeping the night away. Al Stewart in Delia's Gone)
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To: NRx

This article is absolutely correct. But I will take it a step further. Until the governments of Europe and the U.S. get their heads out of their a$$e$ and stop these Muslim Savages AND THEIR ALLIES. They will continue to rampage there way thought the world. This mean destroying Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, C.A.I.R. Nation of Islam (Louis Farrakhan Group, ISIS, Southern Poverty Law Center, American (?)Civil Liberties Union, etc. People, Stop, Look, And Listen. They are trying to destroy our freedoms, our way of life and our Country. And there allies on the left help them. We must destroy them, before they destroy us.


3 posted on 03/31/2018 8:15:26 AM PDT by RollingThunder (i)
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To: NRx

What is amazing is that a tiny number of societal self-immolation zealots got this movement off the ground at all. What in the world made successful societies do such a thing?


4 posted on 03/31/2018 8:16:05 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: alstewartfan; NRx

Another doomsday article ignorant of reality. 2018 is going to be a lovely year by the way. For the UK especially: a royal baby due any day now, a royal wedding...the monarchy is more popular than ever.

And I hear Good Friday was observed with much reverence amongst Catholics and Christians in government and miliary settings all over Europe.

Scottish bishop held mass at their parliament, Spanish flags flew at half mast, etc...

And I quite like Emmanuel Macron.


5 posted on 03/31/2018 8:17:56 AM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
What in the world made successful societies do such a thing?

The utter gutless insanity of 'political correctness' .. which in actuality is political cowardice.

6 posted on 03/31/2018 8:22:35 AM PDT by tomkat
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To: NRx

Great piece!

Cicero on the enemy within...

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”


7 posted on 03/31/2018 8:27:34 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: GoldenState_Rose

Rose, then why are all our leaders allowing us to be invaded by Moooslims and criminals? I think you are burying your head in the sand.
How many actually believe in the divinity of Christ? Not many, despite all the evidence of His resurrection. Royal babies are merely a distraction from the overwhelming assault on all of us.


8 posted on 03/31/2018 8:28:28 AM PDT by alstewartfan (Lines of coffee cups on parade. Soldiers for keeping the night away. Al Stewart in Delia's Gone)
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To: NRx

“If readers of the Statement get a sense that what ails Europe is most likely a terminal cultural pathology that ultimately will kill the patient, that would be a reasonable interpretation. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Paris Statement is not much more than a cry in the cold, dark forests of history. And yet it’s worth pondering: when in history have we seen a civilization turn on itself with such savagery as we see in the West today? What civilizations of the past or present have repudiated themselves and their cultural foundations with such focused intent, then invited in masses of others who don’t share the heritage?”

Save Western Civilization ping!


9 posted on 03/31/2018 8:38:08 AM PDT by bluejean (The lunatics are running the asylum)
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To: alstewartfan

We will get our rewards in Heaven.


10 posted on 03/31/2018 8:42:16 AM PDT by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: alstewartfan

Yes, and “The Paris Statement” is mostly gobbledegook by “intellectuals” who can’t bring themselves to face truth.


11 posted on 03/31/2018 8:48:32 AM PDT by Savage Beast
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To: tomkat
What in the world made successful societies do such a thing?

The utter gutless insanity of 'political correctness' .. which in actuality is political cowardice.

Yes, the inability to muster the courage to face truth. Scorn of truth is the evil fundamental to the decadence of Western Civilization.

In some countries--as the article acknowledges--it is a crime, enforced by heavy penalties, to speak TRUTH.

Western "intellectuals" et al. simply cannot come to grips with this reality.

12 posted on 03/31/2018 8:54:41 AM PDT by Savage Beast
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To: aquila48
"True evil has a face you know and a voice you trust."
Greg Iles

13 posted on 03/31/2018 8:57:37 AM PDT by Savage Beast
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To: alstewartfan

bmp


14 posted on 03/31/2018 8:59:27 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: NRx

shared


15 posted on 03/31/2018 8:59:46 AM PDT by kanawa (https://www.facebook.com/NorthernSentinel)
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To: NRx; aquila48
". . . the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist." - Cicero

"We, the People," as individual citizens of every precinct, must be diligent, as were the founding generations, in studying the ideas essential to preserving individual liberty, else the power takers prevail and erode/destroy the foundations.

"The world is different now. . . and yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forefathers fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

16 posted on 03/31/2018 9:13:56 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: RollingThunder

Don’t forget the communist party. They are behind most of the groups you mentioned and of course the dimocrat party.


17 posted on 03/31/2018 9:16:23 AM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: SVTCobra03
We will get our rewards in Heaven.

I think we have a right to enjoy life on earth, within the strictures of those Godly laws whose purpose is to foster human joy, and not to try the faithfulness of men.

18 posted on 03/31/2018 9:17:38 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Your question is one that philosophers have asked for ages. Essentially, both citizens and leadership lose their resolve, a collective will to progress. It's why all great empires and civilizations eventually fail - initiative decays, lassitude emerges. We know the results when they occur: leadership looks inward to political spoils aka corruption, while the people are distracted by games and indulgence.

The real issue is why are confidence and faith eclipsed? My guess is because of lack of imagination, a failure to understand the nature of technical change and the emergence of new paradigms. In post-WWII Europe, all material wants & needs were essentially satisfied. Free time, global travel, fine wine and gourmet food.

Once existential questions and doubts begin to emerge, the very foundations of society that created the conditions for surplus begins to lose momentum. Soon enough, leadership loses faith and simply resigns themselves to pursuing career opportunities appealing to the mob.

It's hard to stay focused and remain disciplined. Perhaps impossible, which is why every great civilization has passed into history. Europe (and the USA for that matter) don't have a lock on the future. Our successes were based on a few critical factors, present throughout each stage of Western Civ.

Remove self determination, technological innovation and free capital markets, and you destroy the foundation for progress.

19 posted on 03/31/2018 9:19:46 AM PDT by semantic (u)
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To: loveliberty2

Kennedy today would be reviled by his own party. An indication of how far to the left the country has moved.


20 posted on 03/31/2018 9:20:44 AM PDT by aquila48
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