Western civilization is contracting before our eyes in France:
From the air it appears as an urban sprawl, fanning in all directions, gobbling up every available scrap of land.
With its schools, theatre, nightclub, shops and restaurants, the migrants’ camp known as the Jungle has now become a thriving Calais suburb, albeit a ramshackle one.
As our aerial pictures show, the camp on the edge of the French port has expanded beyond recognition in six months.
Last summer it was home to about 3,000 people awaiting their chance of a new life across the Channel in the UK. Now its population, made up of 22 nationalities, edges towards 7,000. But while there are some vestiges of basic infrastructure, conditions in the camp remain dangerous and unsanitary.
Civilization is not land or buildings. It is not technology or infrastructure. It is people. The Greeks understood this. The Romans understood this. Import enough uncivilized people, allow enough barbarians entry, and your society will become uncivilized.
This doesn’t mean civilization is dying, as some would have it. Such barbarization is not merely reversible, it is easily reversed. It merely requires changing the authorities that presently rule the West, which will happen. The only question is when.
And before any Americans complacently predict the end of France, I suggest having a look at what southern and central California look like now, or reading Victor Davis Hanson’s mournful dirges for the land of his youth.