VDH writes:We are presently engaged in a world war for our civilization and its vision of a just and humane society. Our values will either endure this present struggle and indeed be invigorated by the ordeal, or like once great civilizations of the past we will stumble in the face of barbarism and lose all that we hold dear…. Americans believe that freedom and consensual government — far from being the exclusive domain of the West — are ideals central to the human condition and the shared aspirations of all born into this world.
This is some pretty serious hyperbole. There is a world war being waged against us, but losing to the global jihad will take decades, if not a century or more. In the meantime – and partially under the aegis of the war on method – we are losing what little we have not already lost of our civilization’s vision of a just and human society. The twin devils of bureaucratic centralization and cultural secularization have destroyed most of what made the West Western; if the global jihad ultimately triumphs it will be the equivalent of Alaric’s Vandals sacking a long-tottering Rome.
The jihad does offer an opportunity to throw off feckless secularism, but the response of the nation’s leadership has made it clear that a restoration of freedom is not in the cards. Quite the opposite would seem to be the case. Our corruption is systemic.