[Noumenon]

Recently, Samuel Huntington, Victor Davis Hanson and a very, very few others have had the courage to point out one of the biggest of the elephant herd occupying the living room of the American mind; that is, that the West - our civilization - will not endure unless a significant number of us reaffirm our dedication to the American Creed. In a sense, a call for such a reaffirmation is essentially preaching to the choir and targets the wrong audience. Those of us who understand what's at stake hardly need a reminder, yet the message delivered by Huntington and Hanson is utterly compelling in its clarity and precision. These gentlemen pull no punches and do not indulge our wishful thinking with euphemisms. Remember Huntington's description of the American Creed? Liberty, democracy, individualism, equality before the law, constitutionalism, private property. Western civilization in a nutshell, a short list of ideals underwritten by the greatest minds this world has yet produced.

Regrettably, far too many of us are utterly and abysmally ignorant of those ideals and their philosophical underpinnings. If it were only a matter of mere indifference, then our prospects for a restoration of the Creed and its guiding principles and philosophical foundation would be far brighter.  Reason, logic, spirited debate and free discourse in open public forum can and should form the basis for that restoration. Coupled with an educated and participating populace, that's a prescription for the eternal vigilance required to sustain the Creed. And wasn't that the goal of what we call our public education system? That is, to produce minds capable and informed, and in control of their own destiny? What sort of minds are producing today?

hen your opponents lack the price of admission to civilized debate: a respect for reason, belief in objective truth, and a willingness to admit they're wrong when the facts prove it so; when your opponents' goals are to destroy the very foundation of your culture and your society - and to offer nothing in return but the howling nightmare of a society of cannibals and looters; when your opponents seize and indoctrinate your children's' minds in the politics of victimization and the nobility of human servitude and sacrifice - what then? When the institutions of higher learning are occupied by Marxist multiculturalists who despise the very philosophical foundation upon which the architecture of liberty and human dignity can be constructed - what then?  We know the answer - as Huntington said, "History shows that no country so constituted can long endure as a coherent society."

Who has the courage to look at the consequences of that impending dissolution?

[dennisw]

Big bumpski..... Many thanks for your comments too!

[yendu bwam]

When thousands of teenage boys have been sexually molested by homosexual Catholic priests (supposedly living in the person of Jesus Christ) all over the nation, when half of all American kids live without a father present, when our public schools are outranked by Thailand's schools, when 10-15% of our public school kids use hard narcotics, when our (former) adulterer and lier-under-oath president receives oral sex from a young twenty-year old intern on the desk of the oval office, and when there are 1 1/2 million abortions (many in the third trimester) each year in America, you know that something has gone sadly and tragically amiss in our country. We have lost our Judeo-Christian moral bearing. Some think this is good - but that is a very tough case to make. I personally would rather plant my feet on the shore until the fetid moral tide that afflicts our country washes out to sea. Let us pray that the tide is drawn out rapidly, as Americans wake up to the precious heritage they are quickly losing.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Who has the courage to look at the consequences of that impending dissolution?

Few in government.

The only element missing from this piece is the anticipated cultural destruction of the U.S. will be accompanied by a massive amount of violence in the streets.

[Torie]

If one believed everything I read here about his issue, one would think American culture is as fragile as the thinest Venetian glass. It ain't; it is the most robust on this planet, and will continue to be for the forseeable future IMO.

[The Toad]

American culture is pretty tough as the other poster stated; however, that is no excuse for not making sure it remains tough.

[Lessismore]

It is also manifest, in lesser degree, among Hispanics in the United States, who area large minority. If assimilation fails in this case, the United States will become a cleft country with all the potential for strife and disunion that entails.

Why would Hispanics be considered a threat to "western civilization"? They are probably more religious than most US citizens, and they derive their culture primarily from Spain and Portugal. Argentina and Chile are particularly European.

[tpaine]

Good essay, - thanks.
The author noted:
"A more immediate and dangerous challenge exists in the United States.
Historically American national identity has defined culturally by the heritage of Western civilization and politically by by the principles of the American Creed on which Americans overwhelmingly agree:
liberty, democracy, individualism, equality before the law, constitutionalism, private property.
In the late 20th century, both components of American identity have come under concentrated and sustained onslaught ---"

Indeed they have, but not only from the left. Increasingly at FR I've noticed that some of our self-described 'conservatives' here are attacking basic constitutional principles on individual rights. -- Just as your author sees leftists, - I see some rightists doing the same things.
The answer may lie in fear & confusion. - A prof/priest at Rutgers just wrote an article saying:

"The knowledge and technology explosion has left many people confused and afraid. Their understandable longing for security leads some to look for a way to cut through the complexities of modern life and reestablish fundamental truths.
Fundamentalists try to satisfy their "lust for certitude" by oversimplifying things, by making a passionate commitment to a part, and sometimes to a distortion, of the truth."

I posted an excerpt from his article as this thread:
What is Fundamentalism?
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/729941/posts

[MarMema]

"The American Founding Fathers who many years ago first propounded the 'eternal rights of man and the citizen' postulated that every human being bears the form and likeness of God; he therefore has an absolute value, and consequently also the right to be respected by his fellows. Rationalism, positivism and materialism successively destroyed the memory of this absolute source of human rights. The unconditional equality of persons before God was replaced by the conditional equality of individuals before the law..."

As Alexander Solzhenitsyn has said: "Nations are the wealth of mankind, its collective personalities. The very least of them wears its own special colors and bears within itself a special facet of divine intention."

from here

[Billthedrill]

Long time, Noumenon! Good to see you posting.

I'm not a big follower of Huntington but I think he's onto something here. Only I don't see multiculturalism as nearly as monolithic as it appears - it is, after all, profoundly reactionary (if we didn't exist they'd have to invent us) and very much a movement of a fat, peaceful population that enjoys the luxury of not having to decide between value systems in order to survive. That's something of a historical anomaly, and in the absence of of a clear need to decide the adherents of the movement can afford to spend their entire lives in a state of suspended judgment.

Where I do agree with Huntington is that radical Islam has little use for this suspension of judgment, and in fact where it is in control there is no room for multiculturalism whatever - women are covered, representative art is disallowed, music is censored, period, and the religious judges are in absolute control. There is no room in this system for multicultural broad-mindedness; the reason that the multiculturally broadminded haven't quite grasped this yet is that their worldview disallows that - too judgmental. They're food.

[Ohioan]

Destroying Cultural Continuity.

[TopQuark]

Thanks for the article and your thoughtful comments.

[MissAmericanPie]

Fantastic, thanks for posting this.

[TopQuark]

Thanks for the article and your thoughtful comments.

[rdb3]

For later reading.

[skeeter]

The clash between the multiculturalists and the defenders of Western civilization and the American Creed is, in James Kurth's phrase, "the real clash" within the American segment of Western civilization.

If only there were a "clash" I'd be there with bells on. As far as I can see, its been one long retreat.

Take a principled stand at your own peril. As Pat Buchanan found out in '92, the protruding nail gets pounded down.

[Joe Brower]

[dennisw]

Great post from you and article by Huntington.

[Under the Radar]

Great post, thank you.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

To put it another way we are no longer a "people." We are in he process of becoming 300 million isolated little atoms.

[Lady Eileen]

bump......thanks for the post.