Schuh, I wanted to say something about the Decline of the West, before I forget. I agree with you that some conservatives denigrate American society too much, and I have said so in several public forums. But for those of us who believe that Western Civilization is the source of whatever is valid in the modern world, and that promoting Western Civilization amounts to helping other societies learn the necessary underpinnings of modernization, the continued denigration of the West which has become pervasive in academic and left- wing circles is threatening to the progress of the world, and therefore to the peace and prosperity of the United States, which has not only idealistic reasons to hope that other countries adopt democratic capitalism, but which, as a trading nation, is dependent upon stability and a broad prosperity.
On the home front, it is simply true that the fabric of family life has been frayed in the liberationist era, to the detriment of children, and that ill- considered social policies have created an underclass totally unprepared for the world of work and responsibility, and frequently criminal. I live in the Washington metropolitan area, as you might have guessed, and recently there were five separate instances of young men shooting other young men over Eddie Bauer coats, two of them fatal. How many socio- paths can a society afford to create? |
