Why You Can Believe all Those Warnings About the Death of the West (Victor Davis Hanson)

The Corner NRO Online ^ | 11-24-07 | Victor Davis Hanson

[atomic conspiracy]

Hear! Hear!

(I wantd to call this "VDH responds to the Arch-druid of Canterbury.")

[RaceBannon]

le bump!

[LiteKeeper]

le ditto

[bill1952]

bump.

[Rockitz]

Don’t candy-coat it, Vic.

[DB]

It is also ironic that both the Brits and Europeans in general call us Americans the ignorant ones... The ones lacking in history, that we don’t know anything of the world, that we’re a non culture, blah, blah, blah...

Yet repeatedly it is they that spout off with “facts” totally contrary to history much less reality in general...

It amazes me.

[Republic_of_Secession.]

I have found it most interesting how the elites of the West are so hellbent of bringing about the destruction of the west.

[AZLiberty]

Today's "This I Believe" on NPR is evidence for Hanson's thesis. A San Francisco gay who was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness thanks his mother for being tolerant, and apologizes to anyone who was annoyed by a Saturday morning Watchtower delivery. He then expands the scope of the conversation to applaud tolerance to Muslims and NASCAR fans.

He ends with, "I believe our capacity to tolerate both religious and personal difference is what will ultimately give us true liberty—even if it means putting up with an occasional knock on the door."

My 16-year-old son, putting 2 and 2 together, asked, "Is he referring to 9-11?"

[ClearCase_guy]

VDH bump!

[aroundabout]

According to Hansen, the past is prelude to the future. What was will be again and it must be so.

One can only wonder why this man continues to let himself live. After all everything he says, does, thinks or feels is pre ordained and he can excersise no control over his future.

Kinda takes the fun out of living, doesn’t it?

[listenhillary]

Bump

[metesky]

"Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge."
-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest

[LZ_Bayonet]

"I suggest that the Archbishop of Canterbury Panderbury Rowan Williams read..."

Corrected that!

[Cheburashka]

VDH is an historian. Therefore he is quite aware of the mistakes, follies, errors and crimes perpetrated by human beings in the past.

He also knows that the study of history provides valuable lessons to the students of history on these mistakes, follies, errors and crimes, and, therefore, the possibility of avoiding same.

The Founding Fathers of America well understood the study of history. If you go through their writings, and the Federalist Papers, you will find that they were trying to avoid the mistakes that Greeks, Romans, and Europeans made in designing and operating the governments they set up to govern themselves.

He recommends the study of history to avoid repeating the failures of the past, not to be demoralized by them. If the study of the failures of the past demoralize a person, well, that says something about the person, not about Prof. Hanson.

[Redleg Duke]

“Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!” G. Santayana

[aroundabout]

"He recommends the study of history to avoid repeating the failures of the past, not to be demoralized by them. If the study of the failures of the past demoralize a person, well, that says something about the person, not about Prof. Hanson."

Seems to me as if he has already determined we are doomed. Unless you believe all is pre ordained then he is more an alarmist then anything else. Doom sayers and end of the world types are nothing new. One day one of them will actually be right.

[Cheburashka]

Seems to me as if he has already determined we are doomed.

---

I've read a great deal of what he has written, and I find nothing it it like what you describe.

[Minn]

Ridiculous post. You obviously couldn’t carry his jock in an intellectual contest.

[Joe 6-pack]

"(Ecclesiastes 1:9-11) What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. {10} Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. {11} There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."

[Joe 6-pack]

According to Hansen, the past is prelude to the future. "What was will be again and it must be so....Kinda takes the fun out of living, doesn’t it?"

You've just made a powerful argument against the value of experience in any endeavour. Experience is after all, only of value because it allows a person to extrapolate what the consequences of an action (or inaction) might be, based on their familiarity with similar past events.

Indeed, wisdom is the ability to learn and understand from one's own experience and the experiences of others. Whether you consider this in the microcosm of a single life, career, marriage etc., or in the rise and fall of civilizations, you'll see that any action that one might consider to be lacking wisdom, is one that was taken with disregard to past experience.