Good article and true. We approach the end of a civilization if we move in the wrong direction. Are Americans exceptional? I think we are. Both by birth, by nature as it were, and because of our traditions. Why birth? Because active energetic do-ers chose to emigrate from their home nations and come here. They were and are special and they are the “American Race.”
The traditions, I don’t need to defend here at FR.
I'm not the historian that VDH is, but Cortes' conquest of Mexico had major elements of luck, superior weapons technology, accumulated hatred by local tribes who were willing to help the Spanish conquer their enemies, as well as native Aztec superstitious myth about a pale skinned god arriving to conquer Mexico which kept them from fully engaging with the Spanish.
Even if I'm completely wrong, I'm not quite sure how Mr. Hanson's comments about the Spanish conquering Mexico fit into an essay about why socialism is destructive of societies. That it is destructive is inarguable. While the conquest of Mexico is in my mind one of the most fascinating episodes in history, I don't see how it supports his point.
Study the collapse of complex societies, and rarely is the culprit the environment or the enemy across the border.
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder. - Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850