Welcome to the End of Western Civilization

Yep, I’m convinced, Western Civilization is in its death throes. When will the end come and what form will it take? I can only guess, but that’s all it would be, a guess. I’m no prophet, just an observer who’s old enough not to fret about his own future in the face of this dystopian offing. Please do not assume I’m a pessimist, because that would be far from the truth. My understanding of Creation is long-range, an eschatological view that accepts the Church’s Biblical teaching on the end times. The end will be preceded by conflict, persecution, and unspeakable evil before our God brings all of His Creation to its fulfillment. So, if you believe I’m a pessimist, realize that any pessimism is strictly short-term. My long-term understanding of the world is unquestionably optimistic. The Judge of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, will prevail so that “all things work for good for those who love God.”

I think I’m observant enough to see and read the signs, especially when they’re big and bright and flashing like a neon Broadway of the 1950s. Again, what I have to say are just my personal guesses, so let me share a few of them. 

I’ve recently celebrated (quietly) my 79th birthday, but believe I’ll still be around for this societal collapse, at least for its beginnings. I’m pretty sure it’ll happen quickly because these days everything happens quickly. Why should the utter destruction of a civilization be an exception. Neither will the end come quietly. Why should it? Our society, indeed, our world, has become increasingly violent and violence is rarely quiet. There’s no reason Western Civilization should just fade away like MacArthur’s old soldiers. No, it will probably be surrounded from without and penetrated from within and then slaughtered, all done rather quickly, much like the catastrophes experienced by the Russians in 1917 and the Chinese in 1949.

Let me tell a story…a true story. In November 1976 our ship, USS Okinawa, arrived in Sydney Australia. After a long stint at sea, four or five of us, all 30-something naval aviators, were in a crowded hotel elevator heading, predictably, to the rooftop bar when a local woman, knowing we were Americans, suddenly began to complain about American voting habits. Jimmy Carter had just been elected, although only 53% of eligible voters bothered to go to the polls. This, she said, was horrible. She then informed us that Australians who didn’t vote in elections were fined. (I don’t know if this was true then or still is, but she certainly said it.) Having made her point, she waited for an answer. As a true red, white, and blue American, I simply replied, "For Americans, to vote so we can select those who represent us is a right. Because it is a right, we can choose to vote or not to vote. To force citizens to vote is just a first step toward totalitarianism. Enjoy your future.” With that the elevator door opened and we all rushed to the bar where we enjoyed a couple of overpriced beers.

When the "free world" begins to reject freedom, you know we're in serious trouble.

Another sign of rapid and massive decay is the educational system in the West, especially in the US. The vast majority of students in our so-called institutions of higher learning graduate completely uneducated. Some few have received adequate training to enter and perhaps even succeed in specific professions — e.g., engineering and technical fields — and yet they too remain uneducated. Yes, even these have been indoctrinated into the left’s hatred of all things good. Just look at what’s happening on college campuses this week as a result of the violence in Israel. The hatred is visceral, animalistic, and screamed out in profanity laced irrational language. Totally unconcerned with the truth, the useful idiots on campus unthinkingly spew the slogans and lies they have been taught. They are historically, economically, politically, and morally ignorant because they and their parents were willing to pay huge amounts of money to ensure their indoctrinators are paid well. Yesterday, on the “global day of jihad”, we saw this clearly manifested in our streets and on the campuses of American colleges. I was, however, pleased to see that at least one college, Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, instead or supporting terrorists, organized an all-night Eucharistic adoration to pray for peace in Israel. (Our eldest graduated from TAC.) Here’s a link: Thomas Aquinas College

As a nation — indeed, as a civilization — we have neglected the “permanent things” (read T. S. Eliot and Russell Kirk) that give our lives real meaning. When a civilization or society turns away from these, it ceases being human and becomes bestial. Sadly, too many believe we will be saved by politics or economics, but these are not the source of our problems. In fact, they become mere tools that will be used against us. In truth, our troubles are both cultural and spiritual, but to address these has become “politically incorrect.” We have forgotten or neglected the wisdom of our ancestors and the eternal truths that guided their words and deeds. In other words, we have become suicidal, a disease that has infected both liberals and conservatives, thanks to the intelligentsia who have taken control of large and influential segments of bureaucracy, media, academia, and even our military. 

I find it consoling that in many Catholic parishes in the United States — including my parish here in Florida — parishioners are once again praying Pope Leo XIII’s prayer to St. Michael the Archangel after each daily Mass. Many Catholics, then, realize the nature of the threats faced by both Church and society. Pope Leo composed the prayer as a result of a vision he experienced at Mass on October 13, 1884, exactly 33 years before the great miracle of the sun at Fatima. Add this prayer to your daily devotions, for Michael will be the one called to do God’s work during these trying times.

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Human history offers a record of civilizational decline, so we have no guarantee that Western Civilization will somehow survive the fate that befell all others. Pray for our nation, for our civilization, and for the world.

Multicultural Disaster

If you've got the stomach to read any of my politically oriented posts, you'll know that when it comes to politics and the things of the world, I'm a bit of a pessimist...perhaps more than a bit. I've actually come to believe that, as a nation, we have probably reached the point of no-return. By this I mean that the United States of America will never again be the beacon of freedom it once was. The statist elites are so deeply imbedded in all levels of our societal infrastructure, I see no way to exorcise them. And that's exactly what our society needs: an exorcism. Perhaps our loving God will take pity on us and change the hearts of a people who have strayed so far from their real home.

For generations those who suffered persecution, those whose religion, class, or ethnicity had trapped them in a continual cycle of poverty, looked to America as a nation where freedom reigned. In America they could start over and achieve a degree of success unattainable elsewhere. 

Not one of my grandparents was born in this country. Three were born in Ireland and one, also of Irish descent, was born in Canada. They came here seeking freedom, the freedom to work and succeed so they could feed and house their families, educate their children, and freely practice their faith. They didn't feel entitled because no entitlements existed. They took whatever jobs they could find, learned skills that were in demand, and worked hard. There was nothing unique about my grandparents; they were just like millions of others from around the world who came here to experience that same freedom. No longer were these immigrants simply Irish, or Italian, or Russian, or Greek, or British, or German. No longer did they define themselves solely by their class or religion. Now they were Americans! Now they were free men and women, no longer beholden to an upper class or a bureaucracy that lorded over them, but personally responsible for their own lives. I can recall my father, born in 1909, saying that he was most proud of his Irish forebears because "they had the guts to leave the blasted place and come to America!" Amen, Dad.

When they arrived here, they encountered hardships, and bigotry, and hatred. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution didn't stop citizens from sinning. Here in the land of the free some men gave free reign to their baser instincts. Hanging on the wall of my home office is a sign made by the Boston Sign Company in 1915. It reads, "No Irish Need Apply," a not uncommon warning that often met my ancestors when they looked for work. Not very nice, but far better than the lynchings and other atrocities that far too many Black Americans suffered. But despite the rantings of the far-left ideologues of Black Lives Matter, we've come a long way...and for the good.

Today many immigrants come to this country for the same reasons that motivated my grandparents. Many still work hard at multiple, demanding jobs to provide for their families and to offer hope to their children and grandchildren. I see them every day here in central Florida. They came here from Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Brazil, or any of a hundred nations. They mow our lawns, pick up our trash, clean our swimming pools, cook our meals, paint our houses, and repave our roads. Many probably accept that they will work in these jobs for the rest of their lives, but see the future through the lives of their children who they hope will go on to be engineers or doctors or teachers or entrepreneurs. Some, already educated in their native countries, came here to escape the institutional oppression of socialist bureaucracies. Since moving to Florida I have been treated by doctors and PAs from Croatia, Russia, Pakistan, and India. I am continually amazed by those I meet, people who have come here from all over the world. Just last week, as on-call chaplains at our local hospital, Diane and I spent several hours visiting patients. On that single morning we met and prayed with patients from Egypt, Hungary, the U.K., Ireland, Brazil, and Colombia -- all here in search of a better life.

Most of today's immigrants will eventually assimilate just as my grandparents did. It may take an extra generation or two because of the multicultural mindset that governs many of our governmental agencies and turns the path to assimilation into an obstacle course. 

This multicultural mindset demands an assumption which I refuse to accept: the idea of cultural equality, that one culture is as good as the next. I disagree because I believe that our Western Civilization, the civilization that grew out of ancient Greek and Roman societies, was leavened by Mosaic Law fulfilled in Christianity, and reached its fullness in Europe and North America, is the greatest civilization our world has experienced. Of course it has its flaws -- many, many flaws. Original sin guarantees that. But even burdened by all its imperfections, Western Civilization far outshines any other. Multiculturalism denies this and would assume that sharia law is just as good, just as ennobling, just as supportive of human life as the Bill of Rights or the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes. This I cannot accept. And the very fact that millions throughout the world sacrifice so much to come here, shows that most of them cannot accept it either.

But the real problem with multiculturalism is that in practice it simply doesn't work. Need evidence? Just look at the history of what was once Yugoslavia, a phony nation created by the same European elites that gave us World War One and its disastrous consequences. A patchwork of diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural groups, Yugoslavia was formed into a kingdom that experienced only chaos between the wars. After World War Two this "nation" was held together by the oppressive, totalitarian rule of Communist strongman Josip Broz (aka, Marshall Tito). When the dictator died in 1980 the crises erupted once again, resulting in years of inter-ethnic conflict that tore the country apart

Iraq is another patchwork nation, maintained for years by the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein and his Baath party. No doubt it will suffer a fate not unlike Yugoslavia and be undone by ethnic and religious strife, no thanks to us. I give it ten years maximum. Or look at the Catalonians who today threaten to create a new nation separate from a Spain whose culture they prefer not to share. And what was Brexit if not one culture's rejection of an attempt to create a multicultural superstate? Ironically, the U.K. may well face a similar rejection within its own borders should the Scots decide to go their own way. Yes, indeed, if a nation seeks to destroy itself, multiculturalism provides the perfect recipe.

Unfortunately, some of today's immigrants do not share our cultural values. Too many come here not for the freedom, but for the entitlements. They carry with them a set of cultural values foreign to, and often destructive of, the foundational values of Western Civilization. But the multicultural elites who welcome them actively discourage assimilation. No need to learn the language. No need to respect our laws if they conflict with your cultural values. No need to assimilate; stay together in your ethnic enclave where you can continue to celebrate and strengthen the culture from which you came.

Perhaps surprisingly, many Americans seem to understand that once the culture dissolves, the society it supports will collapse. Will we succeed in turning things around? Probably not. The opposing forces are likely too entrenched (again, my pessimism).

Western Civilization has had a pretty good run, but one gets the sense that it has aged, that its end is not too far off. I suppose it could end peacefully in the kind of societal hospice the Europeans seem to hope for; but most civilizations die with a bang and not a whimper. 

I hope I am wrong and we can rise up and reclaim our patrimony. But this won't happen unless we reclaim our faith, the "cult" that gives life to a culture. This will require some divine assistance, but "for God all things are possible" [Mt 19:26]. One thing we know for sure: if we seek perfection we'll have to wait for the Heavenly City.

Another Churchill Book?

I can't imagine any twentieth-century statesman who's been the subject of more books than Winston Churchill. Scrolling through the results of a quick Amazon search will keep you busy for hours. I've probably read at least a dozen of the popular and not-so-popular Churchill biographies and more than a few of the fifty-plus books he authored, so I really didn't think the world needed another book on the man. And then, quite accidentally, I stumbled on a review of a book written by Larry Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College. The rather long title of Arnn's book -- Churchill's Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government -- sums up its contents well. Published late last year, the book focuses on Churchill's lifelong battles with the enemies of free, constitutional government. 

Churchill battled Hitler and his Nazis, the Soviet communism of Stalin and his brutal successors, and the West's foolish and ongoing dalliance with so-called democratic socialism. Churchill realized that democratic socialism would inevitably evolve into a form of authoritarianism that renounced both democracy or the rule of law. He witnessed the beginnings of this downward slide in his own nation just as we are witnesses to it in the United States today. Churchill didn't hesitate to share what he thought of socialism and socialists. In 1945, addressing the House of Commons, he said:

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

And then, in a 1948 speech in Perth, Australia, he said:

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy."

Churchill failed in life as often as he succeeded, perhaps more often, but one gets the sense that he saw failure as just another path to eventual success. 

He saw himself as a man with a mission, a sacred mission not just to save his nation but to save Western civilization from the evils that surrounded it. This motivated him to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.This attitude shines through in his "finest hour" speech, delivered on June 18, 1940 in the House of Commons. He concluded his address with these words:

"Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"

During World War Two he was able to infect the British people with this same determination. He moved them to dig deeply into their national soul and respond to evil with an almost superhuman degree of courage and grit. Imagine hearing these words in June 1940, when things looked darkest:

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

He certainly had a way with words, didn't he? But perhaps his most famous words were heard on May 13, 1940 when he gave his first speech as Prime Minister before the House of Commons:

"I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

Below I've included an audio recording of portions of this and another speech. I hope you enjoy them.

Read Larry Arnn's book and come to know why so many consider Winston Churchill the greatest statesman of modern times.

Off to College...or not

Not long ago President Obama suggested that as a nation we provide free education for anyone who attends a community college. For the president this program would be an extension of the K through 12 public education available to all Americans. We'd simply be adding another two years of public education and providing our young people with a higher education head start.

Sounds good...until we look into it more deeply. The first question that comes to mind is "What will it cost?" We can be sure of one thing: like every government program the cost will always be grossly underestimated. Believe me, the per-student costs of a community college are substantially higher than that of your local public elementary, middle or high school, and once the government starts to foot the bill for all those additional students, the costs will skyrocket. Why do you think the cost of a college education has grown at a rate that far exceeds the rate of inflation? Once the government got into the student loan and grant business, our institutions of higher education came to realize the sky's the limit. At many colleges and universities the amenities provided to students rival those of expensive resorts. And today the typical college professor enjoys a most comfortable salary. Full professors average near $100,000 while entry-level assistant professors typically earn close to $70,000. Not bad for what many educators consider a part-time job.

About 20 years ago I worked at a private Catholic college. One morning in early May, as waited to pour my first cup of coffee in the faculty lounge, I asked a tenured professor of English if he were looking forward to the summer. His response, "Oh, yes indeed. I always enjoy the summer. I go from doing nothing to doing absolutely nothing!" Was he joking? Of course, but not completely. He arrived every morning before his first class and left immediately after his last class. He spent most of his time between classes in the faculty lounge. He had taught the same courses for years, perhaps decades, and quite likely hadn't had an original thought since becoming a tenured professor. In fairness, he was certainly not typical of that college's professors, but neither was he alone in his attitude. My point is that many educators are paid very well for very little work.

Another, perhaps less obvious, objection to the president's plan relates to its benefits. What will it accomplish? In other words, will it really achieve anything worthwhile? The prevailing wisdom states unequivocally that if someone wants to succeed in our society today he must get a college education and earn a degree. I admit I once thought the same, but not any longer.

Virtually all public and too many private colleges and universities no longer mandate the kind of liberal arts studies that result in a well-educated graduate, an adult ready to assume the responsibilities of a good, productive citizen. When I graduated from high school (over 50 years ago), every leading college and university required students to complete a course in the development of Western Civilization. Today very few, if any, of these schools do so. (See the National Association of Scholars report: The Vanishing West: 1964-2010.) Many of these institutions have also eliminated foreign language requirements, as well as mandatory courses in subjects long considered an essential part of a liberal education. The study of history has sadly become history, and we wonder why so many seemingly educated young people cannot name the nations we fought in World War II or in what century the Civil War took place. But even more disturbing they are completely ignorant of the roots of our American experiment. I suppose this is to be expected since in most institutions the few remaining liberal arts courses have been tainted by an extreme form of political correctness that does nothing but promote leftist ideology. And for this the student's parents and the taxpayers pay big bucks.

Too many of today's 22-year-old college graduates are poorly educated and unqualified for the rapidly changing job market. They know all about micro-aggression, discrimination, the wonders of multiculturalism, and the irrelevance of dead white males, but know virtually nothing of the real world in which they must compete.

If a young people were to ask me today for career advice I'd probably suggest that they would be better off spending their scarce resources -- their time and money -- learning the skills of one of the many trades in such high demand. A few years ago I might have suggested a stint in the armed forces where they could learn not only valuable technical skills but also the basics of leadership and management. Sadly, today's military is at the forefront of political correctness and I'd be hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone. No, today I'd suggest that a young person consider becoming a welder, or an electrician, or a computer programmer. Indeed, good coders are highly sought after (and highly paid) by companies who couldn't care less whether or not their employees have college degrees. (It's remarkable how many of these firms were started by college dropouts.) 

Even better, I'd suggest they develop a long-term plan to achieve entrepreneurship, to start their own company, and learn the necessary financial and management skills. Additionally thanks to the Internet, anyone can round out their education by studying the liberal arts online and do so at their own speed while avoiding the ideologues of the left. This, too, I would recommend.

I'd also remind them that their most important task in life is to love God and neighbor, to find their way to salvation. And, trust me, you don't need a college degree to do that.

Dwarfs on the Shoulders of Giants...

Isn't it remarkable that so many who came before us turn out to have been pretty smart? This is no new revelation; it's been known for some time. Indeed, an early 12th-century reference is attributed to Bernard of Chartres who is quoted as saying that "we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants." We can see and understand more, and accomplish more, than those who came before us, not because we are smarter than they, but because they were such giants and have raised us to greater heights. 

Friederich Nietzsche

Bernard was neither the first nor the last to believe this. Indeed, Isaac Newton said much the same thing in a 1676 letter: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Of course, believing this contradicts today's progressive ideologues who have convinced themselves that our predecessors and their ideas have little to teach us today. This rejection of the accomplishments and intellectual heritage of the past, especially the distant past, is particularly evident when the sources of these accomplishments are dead white European males (or DWEMs as they are arrogantly abbreviated). 

Driven by ideology -- whether Marxist, feminist, multiculturalist, atheist, environmentalist, or some grotesque fusion of several or all of these -- far too many of today's educators increasingly dismiss the works of such greats as Dante, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Can you imagine a college survey course of English literature that ignores Shakespeare? Well, believe me, such courses are being taught in many colleges and universities today. 

Not long ago I encountered something even more troubling. I had the opportunity to speak with a young graduate student who had volunteered to help out at our soup kitchen while she visited her grandparents here in Florida. She'd recently earned a BA in philosophy at a rather prestigious private university. When I asked about her undergraduate course of study, it became evident she had read neither Plato nor Aristotle. "The old Greeks really aren't very relevant today," she explained, kindly substituting "old Greeks" for DWEMs in the presence of this living white male. That's when I decided not to ask her about Augustine or Aquinas or Duns Scotus or any of the medieval thinkers. Whom had she studied? Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Spinoza, Marx, Dewey, Marcuse, Peter Singer, Chomsky...all the usual suspects. 

It's all very sad, watching today's educators limit their vision by refusing to climb onto the shoulders of the giants who came before us. Even worse they are effectively blinded by willfully descending into the ideological pits they've dug for themselves. There they see nothing but the dirt beneath their feet and on the walls that surround them. If only they would look up, they would see the light.

More and more colleges and universities are descending into those pits by eliminating programs that focus on the great thinkers who helped Western Civilization flourish and replacing them with courses designed to undermine its foundations. For example, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Heather MacDonald describes the recent changes to UCLA's humanities program:

Until 2011, students majoring in English at UCLA had to take one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton —the cornerstones of English literature. Following a revolt of the junior faculty, however, during which it was announced that Shakespeare was part of the "Empire," UCLA junked these individual author requirements. It replaced them with a mandate that all English majors take a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing.

The idea, of course, is to destroy the dominant culture and replace it with some amorphous, politically correct multiculturalism. In other words great literature is being replaced by garbage. And UCLA isn't alone. Instead of studying Bach and Mozart at the University of South Carolina you can take a course in "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame." Or how about a course at the University of California Irvine on "The Science of Superheroes"? Or perhaps you'd prefer a Harvard University course on "Vampires in Literature and Film"? Or you can spend your time at Appalachian State University studying "What if Harry Potter is Real?" Instead of celebrating the greatness of our civilization, we now celebrate its decadence. And in the process education is trivialized.

According to the National Endowment for the Humanities -- and these figures are from 1988, over 25 years ago! -- one could graduate from 37% of American colleges without ever taking a history course, from 45% without taking a single course in either English or American literature, from 62% without a course in philosophy, and 77% without studying a foreign language. Just imagine what the percentages are today. Far too many students, after putting themselves (and/or their parents) into deep debt are graduating uneducated. Some leave these schools with an acceptable level of technical expertise, equipped to handle the basic requirements of their chosen field. They are prepared for work at its most elementary level, but are they prepared for life? They might know how to be a chemical engineer, but do they know how to be a human being, created in the image and likeness of their Creator? 

This did not happen overnight; indeed it's taken centuries. We now find ourselves approaching the end of a 500-year experiment in humanism, an experiment in which virtually all the obstacles, especially the moral obstacles, to the human will have been obliterated. Once we reject God as the source of all authority and reassign that authority to ourselves, everything changes. Once we reject Christ crucified and replace Him with man deified, we can shout, along with Hegel and Nietzsche, "God is dead!" At that point, anything goes, and I'm reminded of the lyrics of Cole Porter's 1934 song...

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos

And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes.

Today, 80 years later, "anything" has been expanded well beyond the anything of Cole Porter. The Catholic philosopher and historian, Thomas Molnar, in his 1988 book, Twin Powers, described our society's cultural decay as well as anyone when he wrote:

"Culture has come to mean, of course, anything that happens to catch the fancy of a group: rock concerts, supposedly for the famished of the third world; the drug culture and other subcultures; sects and cults; sexual excess and aberration; blasphemy on stage and screen; frightening and obscene shapes; the plastic wrapping of the Pont-Neuf or the California coast; the smashing of the family and other institutions; the display of the queer, abject, the sick. These instant products, meant to provide instant satisfaction to a society itself unmoored from foundation and tradition, accordingly deny the work of mediation and maturation and favor the incoherent, the shapeless and the repulsive."

Western Civilization has been around for quite a while, and so I suppose its ultimate disintegration shouldn't come as a great surprise. In his 1993 book, America's British Culture, Russell Kirk accurately summed up our culture's current condition:

"If the decay goes far enough, in the long run a society's culture sinks to a low level; or the society may fall apart altogether. We Americans live, near the end of the twentieth century, in an era when the general outlines of our inherited culture are still recognizable; yet it does not follow that our children or our grandchildren, in the twenty-first century, will retain a great part of that old culture."

Russell Kirk

Much has happened in the twenty years since Kirk wrote those words. Certainly the moral and ethical decay is evident to anyone who can see. But the culture has also experienced a broader intellectual decay as many rewrite history to fit the demands of their ideologies. The European Union, in a remarkable display of intentional ignorance, has dismissed the role of Christianity, and especially Catholicism, in the development of European civilization. And here in the United States religious freedom, once thought to be the most fundamental of our freedoms, is under constant attack. Enshrined in our Bill of Rights as the first and foremost right of the people, it is now treated as meaningless by those who hold positions of power thanks to that same Constitution. Yes, the dwarfs still refuse to climb onto the shoulders of the giants who went before them.

Of course, this is all just symptomatic of the disintegration of Western Civilization. If the foundational elements of a civilization are tossed aside, if the cult is excised from the culture, the civilization can do nothing but crumble. When and how this will happen is anyone's guess. Will it occur with a whimper or a bang? Will it happen tomorrow or a century from now? I certainly don't know. But because our Christian faith is universal, unattached to any civilization or culture, I know it will survive and flourish until the end of time. 

Instead of worrying about the future, or trying to predict it, perhaps we should simply echo the prayer at the very end of Sacred Scripture: "Come, Lord Jesus!" [Rev 22:20]

The Draft and the Professional Military

Back on June 26, 1963, when I entered the Naval Academy, I had in my wallet what was called a draft card. In those days every able-bodied young man became eligible for the military draft at age 18, and possession of the draft card was proof that one had registered with the local Selective Service office. More than that, though, obtaining a draft card was a kind of "coming of age" ritual through which a boy made the transition to manhood. I can recall my older high school classmates opening their wallets and proudly displaying the coveted card to those of us who were still 17. Because of my September birthday, I was among the youngest in my senior class, and didn't turn 18 until I had already begun my freshman year at Georgetown University. By then, of course, there was little reason to celebrate openly since most of my new college friends had preceded me. For them, it would have been a ho-hum moment.

Conscription remained the law of the land for another decade and the draft was eventually stopped by President Nixon in January of 1973. By that time I had spent four years at the Naval Academy and had been a commissioned officer in the U. S. Navy for almost six years. Although it might be hard for me and my contemporaries to believe, as a nation we have now had a professional, all-volunteer military for forty years.

All of this came to mind when I recently heard a senior officer make what was quite likely an off-hand comment by saying, "I do what my Commander-in-Chief tells me." Although I suspect it was taken out of context, it still bothered me, reminiscent of the "I was only following orders" excuse used in the past to rationalize some rather horrendous behavior by other, more authoritarian governments. It also led me to ask myself some questions I don't feel particularly competent to answer. But I believe they are questions our nation must ask itself and at least try to answer. For example:

Can an increasingly centralized federal government, one that has usurped many of the powers previously reserved to the states and local communities, more easily command the unquestioned loyalty of the military? Will we ever get to the point where our military leadership is more beholden to the Commander-in-Chief than to the Constitution it is sworn to uphold?

And then I asked myself another question: Does the presence of a professional, all-volunteer military eventually create a gap in both values and understanding between the citizenry and the armed forces? After 40 years, does this gap already exist? Can it lead to the kind of isolation that might cause the professional soldier to feel a degree of disdain toward civilians who do not share the values of the warrior? Would the reinstatement of the draft alter this? I recall a joke told to me by a retired Marine friend that's germane to these questions.

The young lieutenant turned to the gunnery sergeant and said, "Gunny, there's a base open house on Saturday and our platoon has been assigned to assist with crowd control. I'm putting you in charge of keeping visitors out of unauthorized areas."

"That could be a problem, sir. Are these visitors all civilians?"

"Yes, of course. Why's that a problem?"

"Well, sir, how do I get the word to them? From what I understand, civilians don't have squad leaders."

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I doubt that this joke would have been around when we still had the draft.

Christopher Dawson

I am a student (a very poor student) of history, and this week I've been re-reading a book written by a most remarkable historian, Christopher Dawson (1889-1970). The book, The Age of the Gods, was written between the two great wars of the twentieth century and first published in 1928. In it Dawson examines the spiritual and social development of our stone-age ancestors along with that of the early civilizations in Egypt and the Near East. This morning, as I read Dawson's description of the decline of Egypt's New Kingdom, I came across the following:

"Thus the fundamental weakness of the New Kingdom in Egypt was revealed in its ultimate consequences. The combination of the ancient theocratic culture with the warrior state of the Bronze Age proved a failure because no organic union of the two was possible. The military class remained external to the civilization which it defended, as a parasitic growth with no roots in the life of the nation" [The Age of the Gods, p. 300].

Will we ever get that far? I doubt it. The New Kingdom of Egypt and the American Republic are very different, culturally and politically. But since it's inevitable that our society will eventually go the way of all its predecessors, one can only wonder about the cause.

The Future of the Church in America

A few days ago I offered my personal reflection on the meaning of the recent elections. In doing so I made no specific predictions, other than suggesting that these elections portend the imminent collapse of Western Civilization. I suppose some might think that's a pretty dire prediction, although such suggestions are nothing new. People have been predicting this for decades. With Christendom gone, the civilization it founded will necessarily decline, to be replaced by something else. I won't even try to predict what that "something else" might be, except to say it will attempt to exert power over all things. In this, of course, it will fail because the power of God's love ultimately overcomes everything.

I'm reminded of something Malcolm Muggeridge wrote over 30 years ago [The End of Christendom, 1980] about an interview he conducted with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He paraphrases Solzhenitsyn as saying:

"...if in this world you are confronted with absolute power, power unmitigated, unrestrained, extending to every area of human life -- if you are confronted with power in those terms, you are driven to realize that the only possible response to it is not some alternative power arrangement, more humane, more enlightened. The only possible response to absolute power is the absolute love which our Lord brought into the world."

Most Americans have yet to experience the kind of absolute, worldly power of which Solzhenitsyn speaks, the sort of power that confronted those who lived in Hitler's Third Reich, in Stalin's Soviet Union, or in Mao's China. And we naively assume we will never be the objects of those who wield such power. This, after all, is America. To a certain extent those who believe this are probably correct. I also do not expect our nation to turn into the typical 20th-Century fascist or communist state. No, those who wield power here are far too sophisticated, too progressive to follow the failed paths of the past. Instead, as Solzhenitsyn suggests, they will enforce power through a "more humane, more enlightened" sort of society, one in which all of life is controlled for our own good, as those goods are defined by those who hold the reins of power.

How long this transition will take is anyone's guess, but I expect it will not take long. And when it finally occurs, perhaps then, in the midst of this kinder, softer totalitarian oppression, those who have seemingly welcomed this change will begin to question. Perhaps then, as they experience the subtle but relentless attack on their very humanity, they will come to an understanding of what is happening to them. Perhaps then, as they search for answers, they will open their hearts to the only alternative: the power of God's love. And when they do this the Church will still be there to lead them to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Although this little blog of mine doesn't generate many comments, (I'm pretty sure one has to have readers to get comments), I do receive occasional emails from friends and acquaintances who either agree or take issue with what I've posted. And I always appreciate both. But as a result of my last post, I received quite a few emails complaining about what they perceived to be a sense of despair in what I wrote. The only thing I can say in response is that I am never without hope when it comes to the "permanent things." If claiming that our civilization will ultimately collapse is to despair, I plead guilty. I am not at all optimistic when it comes to worldly hope and change. But then I don't consider our human, worldly civilizations to be all that important when measured alongside the salvation of souls, something of eternal importance. And although I love my country, I realize that it too is of human origin and necessarily doomed to turn to dust.

I do not, however, despair when it comes to the Church -- One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic -- since our Lord, Jesus Christ, promised to remain with us until the end of time. Will the Church in tomorrow's America have a different role than it has today? Not really; but how it must carry out that role will be very different.

This morning I read a most interesting essay ["What the Election Means"] by Fr. Philip de Vous, a Catholic priest and pastor in Kentucky. Fr. de Vous offers his thoughts on the election and what it will mean for the Church and for religious liberty in the near term. It is well worth reading.

God's peace...


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Decadence and Decline

The American people have spoken and, as my late brother once cynically remarked, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American voter." It would seem his cynicism has been borne out by yesterday's election.

As you have probably guessed, I am not happy with the results. My displeasure, however, has less to do with who won or lost in particular elections than the direction these results are taking our society and the unexpected speed of that movement.

To be blunt, I honestly believe Western civilization is nearing its total collapse. It's been coming for some time but I never expected to be alive when it finally happened. Europe, of course, has led the way and only the morally blind cannot see the depth of its decline. I am aware, too, that our nation must eventually go the way of every other nation. Original sin pretty much guarantees that. But I had optimistically held out the hope that the United States of America would last longer than most, that it would rediscover its uniqueness, that its people would somehow reclaim its birthright, that we would defy history and the forces of evil and bring about a rebirth of freedom. Alas, this is not to be. We have, I believe, passed a societal point of no return.

As a nation we seem to have fallen prey to democracy's fatal weakness: the awareness by the majority that they can bleed the minority with impunity. Once politicians grasp this, they use their considerable powers, especially the power of taxation, to aid their friends and harm their foes. Our founding fathers hoped to prevent this by means of a Constitution that would protect the rights of all, include checks and balances, and guarantee separation of powers. What they didn't foresee was: (1) a judiciary that would, in effect, rewrite the Constitution, adapting it to the prevailing zeitgeist; (2) an executive that would increasingly usurp the powers of the legislature; and (3) a weakened legislature that would allow this to happen. When the collapse will occur, I cannot predict, but it will occur, and soon enough.

This modern Western civilization of ours came to be through Christianity, but once its religious foundation crumbles it will cease to exist as a civilization. No civilization can survive when the core values that gave it purpose have disappeared. And Western man cannot survive in the shell of a civilization deprived of these values, its Christian underpinnings. These values are rapidly disappearing in the face of internal decay and corruption. Civilization grows closer to barbarism as it drifts father away from Christianity. Evidence of this can be seen in Western Europe where Christianity is now the faith of only a small minority and consequently is discounted as irrelevant by the politically powerful. These same worldly forces are not content to ignore the remnants of our civilization but have turned on Christianity and its values in an inexplicable suicidal attack. We are now witnessing much the same here in our own country. And, believe me, the signs cannot be dismissed.

Only the most brutal society will slaughter its children by the millions simply because they are inconvenient.

Only the most self-centered society will neither honor its elderly nor aid its infirm, preferring instead to find ways to eliminate them through "managed health care".

Only the most decadent society will equate sodomy with marriage.

Only the most corrupt society will pile up astronomical amounts of debt onto future generations merely to satisfy its own immediate wants.

Only the most faithless society will allow its government to undermine our nation's most cherished freedom, the people's free exercise of their religious beliefs.

The citizens of our nation have reelected a man who sees no evil in either abortion or infanticide, no problem with the continuing destruction of our free-market economy, and no contradiction in same-sex marriage. He bows to those who despise us and shows disdain for our allies. He is a man of his time, a man of our times, a man so certain he is right that he will never admit to being wrong. And he is, once again, our president.

Who's to blame for all this? We all are, along with those who came before us. Too often we stood by silently and watched as our citizenry slid into the decadence that surrounds us. Although I dislike doing so, I assign much of the blame to our American Catholic bishops whose reaction to all this was too little, too late. For years they said little and did less when Catholic politicians screamed their rejection of Church teaching from their bully pulpits in Congress and governors' mansions. Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo,  John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Martin O'Malley...these and too many other Catholic politicians have set an example that millions of uncatechized Catholics have followed. If it's okay for them, it must be okay for me. As one educated layman said to me a few years ago, "My pastor told me it would be sinful to vote against a candidate just because he's pro-choice or favors gay marriage." Comments like that make one wonder about the involvement of that pastor's bishop.

But perhaps this will wake up our bishops, our clergy, and our laity, and turn them into a holy remnant seeking God's will in their lives. Maybe it's exactly what we need. As my pastor said this morning, "It seems we all have a lot of work to do." He's right. The world is littered with so much dirt and squalor and hatred. Millions devote their lives only to the aimless and irresponsible pursuit of pleasure. These are the obvious symptoms of internal decay and corruption, and God will probably allow a purging. As Evelyn Waugh once wrote [Vile Bodies, 1930], there is "a radical instability in our whole world-order, and soon we shall be walking into the jaws of destruction." But we must always remember: even if our entire civilization crumbles around us, the Church will remain.This was promised us.

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Things Unreported

I don't spend a lot of my time roaming the worldwide web because I actually have much better things to do. But if one is judicious the web is perhaps the only place one can access the important news that most media outlets ignore. And so every few days I check out a few favorite sites just to see what's really new in the world. Here are a few items I came across this morning. I doubt that you'll see them on the evening network news.

From American Thinker: Will the Real Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf Please Stand Up? Includes some interesting facts about the Arab/Muslim world's treatment of Palestinians.

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From Pajamas Media: The eminent classicist and historian, now gentleman farmer, Victor Davis Hanson, gives us his thoughts on societal decline: With a Whimper or a Bang -- or Not at All.

From Front Page Magazine: If you thought China was just an economic superpower, check out this analysis of the Pentagon's 2010 report on China's extraordinary military buildup. Are we once again all prepared for the last war instead of the next? China Rising.

From Catholic Online: Deacon Keith Fournier tells us about the demise of the last Catholic adoption agency in the UK. Catholic Care will no longer offer adoptions because they refused to compromise Church teaching and arrange adoptions for homosexual couples. The 2007 Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations demand that Catholic Care accede to these regulations or close it doors. Last Catholic Adoption Agency in UK Refuses to Compromise With Caesar.

From The Catholic Thing: If you want to learn about the persecution of Christians throughout the world,  don't bother looking in the mainstream media because it's not there. But here's an interesting story about Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) who, along with several colleagues, is demanding an investigation of an incident in which Vietnamese government authorities used deadly force against a religious procession. US Lawmakers Urge Probe on Vietnam Catholic Clash.

One morning's collection of interesting unreported news...

Suicide of Western Civilization

In my previous post I provided a link to Elizabeth Scalia's blog, The Anchoress, but what I hadn't read at the time was her piece that appeared this morning on the website of First Things. Entitled, "Hating Ourselves to Death" it offers a brief glimpse of the West on its deathbed and provides what I believe is an accurate diagnosis of the likely terminal illness that has placed it there. It's well worth a read.

I've written a few posts recently on the subject Western Europe's probable demise and the spread of its fatal disease to our shores here in the USA. But what I find most interesting about this speculation (by me and others) is how James Burnham (1905-1987) anticipated it all almost a half-century ago. Back in 1964 Burnham recognized the basic flaws of modern liberalism and clearly saw the kind of future into which these errors would lead us. The title of Burnham's book, Suicide of the West, pretty much says it all.

Burnham, a once-radical Trotskyite, who is probably best known for his book, The Managerial Revolution, underwent a significant change in thinking back in the 1940s and became a stalwart of the conservative movement and a frequent contributor to William F. Buckley's National Review. It was there, back in the early sixties, in the pages of my father's copies of that journal, that I first encountered James Burnham. And it was just a few years later when I was handed a copy of Suicide of the West, also thanks to my father. According to Burnham, modern liberals are wracked with guilt and self-hatred, a syndrome that becomes manifest in all kinds of contradictory behaviors and beliefs. He would have agreed heartily with Scalia's article mentioned above.

In my opinion Burnham's best book, though, is The Machiavellians (1943), another prophetic look into the future (our present) in which he describes the ascendancy of a governing elite who will make effective use of the trappings of a democratic society as its members work toward one overreaching goal: the realization of their own personal interests.

James Burnham is still worth reading.

Bye-bye Western Civilization

The other day, during one of those early morning conversations that move from one non sequitur to another, I was asked by a parishioner, probably rhetorically, "I don't know, deacon, how are we going to save our civilization?"

My initial reaction was simply to give one of those "who knows?" shrugs and leave it at that. But then I remembered Whittaker Chambers' rather famous comment from a 1954 letter later published in Odyssey of a Friend (Regnery Books, 1987), p. 44.

“The enemy—he is ourselves. That is why it is idle to talk about preventing the wreck of Western civilization. It is already a wreck from within.”

A lot of conservatives cried, "No! No! No!" when they read those words in the 80s. "Chambers was wrong. Just look what Ronald Reagan has accomplished. America is on the rebound and back in business." And then when the 90s rolled around, they were even more convinced. "Communism has crumbled, crushed into dust under the weight of its inescapable inefficiencies. Once again America and the West have triumphed. Chambers was just a habitual pessimist. The West rules!"

The trouble is, pretty much all of those fiscal conservatives didn't have a clue what Chambers meant when he wrote those words. For Chambers, the West could save itself only through a civilization-wide religious renewal; in other words, a return to Christendom. And had he lived to see them, the events of the last decades of the 20th century would have had little or no effect on Chambers' opinion.

I think I can safely say that Chambers would have seen the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states not as a victory of Christianity over atheism, but rather as a victory of free-market capitalism over communism. It was simply the victory of one system of economics over another. But it was a victory that did nothing to excise the malignancy that had spread throughout both societies. Even in 1954 Chambers recognized that the West, despite its truly remarkable economic strength, was doomed unless it rebuilt its moral and religious foundation.

Since then that malignancy has done nothing but grow. It's the malignancy of relativism, a kind of philosophical and theological indifference that removes all restraint and reserves it harshest punishment for those who actually believe in something. It's far worse than atheism. Atheism, after all, is up-front and in-your-face. One can at least argue with an atheist, because atheists bring arguments to the table. Relativists have no arguments that I can see. Their basic premise is that everything's okay...everything except a belief that everything's not okay. Because their beliefs are, in a sense, self-contradictory, logical arguments mean nothing to them. And they run almost every element of our society.

One need not be as prophetic or farseeing as Chambers to recognize that this malignancy has permeated what's left of Western civilization and continues to grow. Despite the current political backlash that's spreading throughout the country, from what I can see it's strictly political. I see no sign of the kind of widespread religious renewal needed to save our civilization. Saving it must come from within. It's certainly not going to be saved from without. And so I anticipate its demise since, as Chambers remarked, "It is already a wreck from within."

I don't view this as totally horrible. God might well raise something far better from our ashes. He is, after all, in charge. And He promised the Church would be here until the end, guided by the Holy Spirit. And so, don't worry; seek the Kingdom instead...

So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. [Mt 6:31-34]

Oh, yes...how did I answer my parishioner friend's question? Actually I didn't say a thing. I just shrugged.

Blessings...