The Global Shift

http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200506100747.asp ^ | June 10, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[mal]

Radical global power shifts have been common throughout history. For almost a millennium (800-100 BC) the Greek East, with its proximity to wealthy Asia and African markets and a dynamic Hellenism, was the nexus of Western civilization — before giving way to Rome and the western Mediterranean.

Yet by A.D. 300 the Greek-speaking half of the empire, more distant from northern European tribal attacks, proved the more resolute. It would endure for over 1,000 years while the fragmented West fell into chaos.

And then yet again the pendulum shifted back. The Renaissance was the product of Florence, Venice, and Rome as the Byzantine East was worn out by its elemental struggles with Islam and straitjacketed by an increasingly rigid Orthodoxy and top-heavy imperial regime.

But by 1600 the galley states of the Western Mediterranean were to lose their restored primacy for good, as to the north the ocean-going galleons of the Atlantic port nations — England, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain — usurped commerce and monopolized the new trans-oceanic trade routes to Asia and the New World.

[Tolik]

A global shake-up is underway.

The world will soon better appreciate the United States.

....As nations come to know the Chinese, and as a ripe Europe increasingly cannot or will not defend itself, the old maligned United States will begin to look pretty good again. More important, America will not be the world’s easily caricatured sole power, but more likely the sole democratic superpower that factors in morality in addition to national interest in its treatment of others.

China is strong without morality; Europe is impotent in its ethical smugness. The buffer United States, in contrast, believes morality is not mere good intentions but the willingness and ability to translate easy idealism into hard and messy practice.

Most critics will find such sentiments laughable or naïve; but just watch China in the years to come. Those who now malign the imperfections of the United States may well in shock whimper back, asking for our friendship. Then the boutique practice of anti-Americanism among the global elite will come to an end.

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out

[Savage Beast]

And EXCELLENT appraisal. As usual, Victor Davis Hansen is right on target.

"China is strong without morality; Europe is impotent in its ethical smugness. The buffer United States, in contrast, believes morality is not mere good intentions but the willingness and ability to translate easy idealism into hard and messy practice."

The United States, to which he refers, is, of course Middle America--and not the Leftist enclaves, including the Democrat Party, which have embraced the suicidal decadence (and perverse "ethical smugness") of Europe.

And this is why the American social and political center of gravity has shifted from the West and Northeast Coasts to Middle America.

Europe, mired in suicidal decadence, lacks the will to survive, let alone prevail. So does Leftist America.

Americans of Middle America, however--ever ascendant, self-confident, and cherishing of The American Dream and the values that made the United States the greatest--and the richest--nation the world has ever known and the last great bastion of Western Civilization--consider Western Civilization well worth preserving and are determined to prevail!

We will.

The trick is to remain resilient, flexible, pragmatic, liberal, and determined and--above all--TO FACE REALITY.

("Liberal," of course, means free, free-thinking, open-minded, and open-to fresh and new ideas; the word has nothing to do with the decadent Left, which is definitely not liberal.)

Hansen's right. When the rest of the world is finally forced to awaken to reality, it will understand that Middle America was right all along and is the best and greatest hope for the world.

If the rest of the world does not awaken to this reality, the United States--Middle America--will procede alone--and will prevail alone, yet again.

The sooner the people of the world abandon the suicidal decadence, including Marxism, that have infected Europe and the Leftist cesspools of America like The Plague, and the sooner they join Middle America in its ascendancy, the better--and the safer--the world will be.

[Carry_Okie]

If the rest of the world does not awaken to this reality, the United States--Middle America--will procede alone--and will prevail alone, yet again.

I hope you are right, but an America dependent upon foreign sources of food, raw materials, and energy, deeply in hock after fighting the WOT while buying the favor of our religious enemies and paying for the welfare state, without an educated young population, berefit of the Panama Canal, and massively infiltrated by those who do not mean us well and can't speak our language is not in a good strategic position to win decisively.

[OXENinFLA]

PING...

[Gengis Khan]

ping!

[Jeff F]

Those who now malign the imperfections of the United States may well in shock whimper back, asking for our friendship. Then the boutique practice of anti-Americanism among the global elite will come to an end.

Europe loves to hate America because it is so much better than having to deal with a much more terrifying reality. The U.S. will not react against the Europeans in any meaningful way so the bashing is both self gratifying and cost free.

They obsessively focus upon the threat we pose to their economy and generous social programs while turning a blind eye towards the far greater threat posed by China and India.

They smugly denounce our degree of religious faith saying it offends their liberal sensibilities while not daring to challenge the rapidly growing hoards of alien Islamic fundamentalist within their midst.

They worry about the cultural threat posed by Hollywood, McDonalds, and Disneyland while remaining silent about their "guest workers" who scheme to completely crush their culture and to force the Europeans to convert to fundamentalist Islam.

They fret about the transgressions of the Jews while coddling and even romanticizing the barbarism of the Arabs.

In the end, the Europeans probably believe they can rely upon America to once again save them from the rest of the world and from themselves. What the heck, because afterwards they can return to comfortably despising us all the more. In the mean time, they will continue to carry on like a snarky foul tempered teenager out to get his dad's goat.

[Jeff F]

Those who now malign the imperfections of the United States may well in shock whimper back, asking for our friendship. Then the boutique practice of anti-Americanism among the global elite will come to an end.

Europe loves to hate America because it is so much better than having to deal with a much more terrifying reality. The U.S. will not react against the Europeans in any meaningful way so the bashing is both self gratifying and cost free.

They obsessively focus upon the threat we pose to their economy and generous social programs while turning a blind eye towards the far greater threat posed by China and India.

They smugly denounce our degree of religious faith saying it offends their liberal sensibilities while not daring to challenge the rapidly growing hoards of alien Islamic fundamentalist within their midst.

They worry about the cultural threat posed by Hollywood, McDonalds, and Disneyland while remaining silent about their "guest workers" who scheme to completely crush their culture and to force the Europeans to convert to fundamentalist Islam.

They fret about the transgressions of the Jews while coddling and even romanticizing the barbarism of the Arabs.

In the end, the Europeans probably believe they can rely upon America to once again save them from the rest of the world and from themselves. What the heck, because afterwards they can return to comfortably despising us all the more. In the mean time, they will continue to carry on like a snarky foul tempered teenager out to get his dad's goat.

[Jeff F]

Please excuse the double post. The first posting did not seem to take hold.

[nosofar]

The U.S. will not react against the Europeans in any meaningful way so the bashing is both self gratifying and cost free.

The same might be said of some Americans who bash Europe.

[68skylark]

Yet Pavlovian anti-Americanism may soon begin to die down as the Chinese increasingly flex their muscles on the global stage....

Good article. But some parts of it (like this sentence) seem much too optimistic.

Pavlovian anti-Americanism seems pretty healthy to me, and seems to be resistant to any changes due to real-world events. Perversely, the more China misbehaves and threatens people in the future, the more anti-Americanism may grow.

[68skylark]

Thanks for your dose of gloom and pessimism! There are always people who want to see our problems -- but history hasn't been kind to those who bet America will fail.

[68skylark]

The same might be said of some Americans who bash Europe.

I don't think so. Americans who bash Europe have a whole different mind-set than Europeans who bash us. Our bashing is a small matter and done only for fun. Their bashing is central to many of their political parties and central to their image of themselves -- without bashing America they'd have to face some very unpleasant views in the mirror.

[Carry_Okie]

There are always people who want to see our problems -- but history hasn't been kind to those who bet America will fail.

America has never before been so ridden with leftists. It's not pessimism; it's a wake-up call.

[B4Ranch]

Lou Dobbs: Terror Arrests; Homeland Security; No Boundaries; Sanders & Paul Discussion

See what the CFR is proposing, an America with no borders.

[Jeff F]

The same might be said of some Americans who bash Europe.

The point I was driving at is that much of the basis for European anti-Americanism is that it allows them to avoid having to deal with much bigger problems. It is a cheap form of aggressive denial. Recent American bashing of parts of Europe has more to do with anger at their attempts to undermine American attempts to defend itself against a common threat. The two are not equivalent.

[blackie]

VDH ~ Bump!

[Paul_Denton]

bump for later reading

[Valin]

There has always been something of a divide between America and Europe. Since the fall of the wall this divide has become greater, As Europe (particularly "Old Europe") rush headlong into the post-Christian ethos. So (IMO) they deserve (for the most part) any bashing they get. Unless something changes soon in Europe they will become they'll become nothing more than Euro-land a theme park.

[Savage Beast]

I think you're right, Carry, but the shift of America's political and social center of gravity to Middle America from the Lunatic Left is encouraging.