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What do you consider the biggest threat to Western Civ?
By “Western Civilization”, I mean the culture, customs, and practices spanning religion, politics, philosophy, business, and other areas that have shaped and distinguished the way the West has lived through history. While there are obviously differences between individual countries and cultural groups within the West, there are common denominators which pierce through them and separate the West from Africa, Asia, and other areas of the world.
Some candidates for threats include Islamic expansion, moral relativism, secularism, growing Chinese strength, and Western population decline.
What’s your view?
What is the biggest threat to Western Civilization?
Itself. The senseless excesses and the complacency that accompany them will keep people from doing anything about the decline of their own culture 🙁
Interesting answer.
I have thought of parallels between modern-day America and ancient Rome; vast influence, military superiority, cultural spectacle for all. I suppose that since Europe is like the foreign arm of the Democratic Party in the U.S., the complacency and excesses of America become those of Europe as well.
The demise of the Christian faith. Secular humanism, moral relativism, and materialistic hedonism are going to lead the West to its ruin if nothing is done to stem the lurch toward spiritual depravity. 😥
Being subsumed, demographically by non-western cultures. Europe’s native population is in absolute decline and in severe relative decline vis a vi African, Arab and Muslim immigration and birthrates. The balance shifts more in favor of the minorties every year as more and more of their population is unassimilated and alien to the cultures and traditions of their host countries. As the numbers and influence (legitimate and otherwise) grows, the comparitive will to reassert traditional Western values and institutions declines and complacency and a self-defeating and self-fulfilling mindset takes over and allows it to happen. Pretty soon they’ll be like a zebra after a long hunt by lions: in such a state of shock they allow themselves to be eaten alive without even really feeling it.
Phidippides wrote:What do you consider the biggest threat to Western Civ?
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What’s your view?Well we over induldge on natural resources so in fact we could have made damage to the earth that we cannot do anything about – perhaps “A Day After Tomorrow” situation with the gulf stream ending (particularly if you live in the UK this is a bad thing)…so i think the biggest threat is ourselves eating away at the earth’s natural resources. With the developing countires making this worse by polluting the skies heavily – agian they have no other viable option as they are just trying to survive one argues.
If western civilisation cannot rely on oil, cars, electricity etc then it would be like living in the stone age again – people would probably act stupid.
You might find interesting what I posted in another thread about the Little Ice Age. Basically, scientists have been able to determine that a temperature drop from about the Renaissance age to the Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on Europe and America. They theorize that this may have occurred because of changing water warm or cold water currents in the Atlantic. What is also interesting is that there is a suspicion that this may be occurring again. In fact, not long after watching the program which aired that theory, I saw a news story which mentioned the possibility of our world revisiting this scenario.That said, I imagine it's difficult to determine whether this is true or not. I believe that weather patterns shift from time to time, so the climate model is not completely predictable.
What do you consider the biggest threat to Western Civ?
Not saying this to flame or cause arguments, but I believe the #1 cause for the demise of Western Civilization is the modern Leftist movement.
Funny….I see I wrote the original question back in 2005, and even since then the biggest threat to Western Civilization seems to changed. Now, I would agree generally with Ski in terms of the biggest threat. Perhaps this threat was not looming as large in 2005 as it is today due to the recent political circumstances. However, I think we could specify the particular problem a bit more….the “left” is rather large, and some parts of it are more dangerous than others.
The demise of the Christian faith. Secular humanism, moral relativism, and materialistic hedonism are going to lead the West to its ruin if nothing is done to stem the lurch toward spiritual depravity. 😥
Don hit this nail on the head back in 2005. :)The things he mentions are hallmarks of leftist so-called post-modern society. The modern left wants to jettison the very heritage of western civilization and remake it in its entirety. They are much like the mother who throws the baby out with the bathwater. Rather than change aspects of society they want a complete, bottom-up remake. The left forgets that it was many of the qualities of western civilization that they abhor that made Western/European culture the dominant culture of the world for hundreds of years.I also dont think conservatives are opposed to all change, they just prefer gradual thoughtful change to rapid emotionally driven change.
I'd have to agree ignorance is probably one of the biggest threats, even moreso than multi-culturalism. Look at the misconceptions people have about the Middle Ages. I just wonder if it's being taught this way in schools or if it's just lack of curiosity and skepticism.
I would say it's the word that describes a nation of people who start looking more and more to the government for answers that the government should not be involved with. The people start demanding entitlements and the culture turns into a “me”-society. Of course the government cannot deliver on such demands, but it must continue to do so to retain power. So, the government starts whittling away at rights of the people, such as those who are most productive or those who aren't great enough in number or strength to stand up for themselves.
I was going to disagree with you because government always was big, intrusive and viewed as the protector throughout Western history until you said “such as those who are most productive.” Even though government was big most of the time, as far as I know, it rarely interfered with productivity and the market economy. If anything, their policies usually enhanced capitalism and wealth. It's different now though. They want to regulate and interfere with the markets. Like this for example.
Yes, I think that government is the “protector” in the sense that it helps to protect certain rights. An interesting way to think of it is that if people lived out in the wilderness together, how would they deal with one another? Some may play fair, but others would not. And how would they coordinate themselves to remain safe from outside hostiles? Government is formed to help protect the interests of those over whom it extends.This is quite different from the perception nowadays that government is the provider or the equalizer of financial resources. Notice in the wilderness example above that it presumes people are already in a community, engaging in economic activities before deciding to form a government. Markets exist independent of government, so why in the world should government run markets?
