Posted on 04/14/2012 7:42:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
“Thailand, India, Japan, China, South Korea, Israel, Turkey,”
I would submit that the US is more successful than any one or all of those, and we are the penultimate achievement of Western Civilization, even in our current decayed state.
No doubt. But to say that they aren’t successful is not right. And their mere existence puts the thesis you advocated in doubt.
“And their mere existence puts the thesis you advocated in doubt.”
And all of those have had sufficient exposure to Western Civilization (which is underpinned by Christian thought, values, and mores) in order to be where they are at today. If there had been no Western Christendom, then the world at large would be little better off than it was circa the year 1200 AD. That may not be the politically correct, multicultural thing to say, but it is the truth, nonetheless.
Except that Israel is the foundation of western civilization, so they made western civilization great, not the other way around.
And China and India were exceptionally rich and powerful over the ages. It was only around the 1800’s that they went to pot.
Technology is the edge that made modern western civilization dominant. And that comes from science and the scientific method. Which comes from rational thought. And rational thought is one of the gifts that came from Judaism (see Israel).
You are correct in stating that ancient Israel and Judaism are wellsprings of the west; in your earlier post I assumed wrongly that you referred to the modern nation. The eastern civilizations, though, had stagnated well before the 1800s, actually- China somewhat further back into the 1600s, India in the 1700s. And neither contributed greatly to the development of Western Civilization. It is worthy to note that the scientific method and other appurtenances of the 1600s are due to Christian acceptance that reason came from God, which Locke noted when writing of government.
What's your point? Ronald Reagan was divorced and signed a sweeping pro-choice bill in California and you know what kind of president HE was.
“”The Republican Party is a managerial party that doesn’t like to fight, doesn’t like to read books,” Gingrich said Wednesday before a group of tea party leaders in Delaware. “That is why the tea party was so horrifying. Tea partiers were actually learning about the Declaration of Independence. They wanted to talk about the Federalst Papers. It was weird.”
I was having a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun with the title of the article - The Return of the Thinking Republicans - who can’t be doing much thinking when Newt says they don’t even read.
Newt’s point is that the Tea Party is more informed than the Republican Party, and that it represents a real threat to them. And I sure hope it changes the party or supplants it.
This election is the republican party’s last chance. I really believe that, and I think Newt does too. The House right now can’t do much because of Reid’s Senate graveyard and Obama’s veto pen. But if the republicans prevail in this election, they have to show some real change and read up on what this country was founded for.
I revere Ronald Reagan. He was our modern day George Washington. My comment had nothing to do with Reagan. It was a jab at the future of the republican party using Newt’s own words.
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