You cannot save a dying organism unless you first acknowledge its affliction. It takes bravery to accept uncomfortable truth. It is not “defeatism” to have the courage to recognize harsh reality over deluded comforting fantasy. Accepting truth is not “giving up” either - those who think it is have already given up. Rather, “defeatism” is the coward’s smear against those who expose his denialist ostrichism. Deluded optimism is what gets us all killed in the end.
“False hopes are more dangerous than fears.”
- J. R. R. Tolkien
“Without strict adherence to the letter, a man may be called happy who, thanks to reason, has seized neither to hope nor fear.”
— Seneca
Is Western civilization dying?
If by “Western civilization” we mean the Western way of thought, values, principles, ideas, ideals - and the Western identity that comes from those elements - then yes, the West is dying. The true defeatists are those desperate enough to resort to self-deluding false hope, and thus remain inert in their cowardly complacency that “all is going to be fine” without lifting a finger.
What happened to the West?
Westerners forgot their most defining value: that of freedom. They forgot that freedom was a core ideal of the Western spirit from antiquity. This idea of freedom is what guided Western philosophy, critical thinking, and identity. Freedom is what created the concept of demos, as opposed to blind obedience to singular monarchy. It is freedom, and allowing other people their freedom, that gave rise to the Western value of tolerance so eagerly exploited today by those who hate the West. Westerners of today have replaced the value of freedom with its antithesis: an Eastern value of reverence “owed” to charismatic demagogues and entertaining totalitarians.
The cynics will claim that freedom was never a Western freedom, since the West’s history is riddled with authoritarian statism, war, and oppression. Indeed, world history is infested with statist oppression and barbarity; whether west, east, or south… But only Western despots felt the need to gaslight their plebs with propaganda of faux freedom. Only Western authoritarians were forced to deceive their subjects into believing that government violence was “for freedom.” Only Western “authority” figures had to deceptively brand their authoritarian rule as “democratic,” “liberal,” or “free.” Only the Westerner has to be propagandized with delusions of freedom if he is to accept totalitarian rule. Only the Westerner punishes himself still with self-righteous guilt for the dark pages of his history, while other cultures pride themselves over - and make excuses for - the violent power projections of their forefathers.
It seems that the Westerner still has some noble guilt left in him - guilt for betraying his value of freedom. Is this not an ember of Western identity that still remains in the Western collective psyche. Is that not truly hopeful?
The Western grifter phenomenon
The West is now up to its neck in self-appointed “champions” of Western values - who can’t even define those values. These online content creators, influencers, and grifters exploit the identity gap of the modern Westerner. They endlessly moralize and project a caricature of Western civilization, which they don’t truly understand.
All they do is post online content: generically praising “the West” while criticizing immigration policies. Yet they yearn for an even more centralized government; the same government that invites, ships, accommodates, and funds the foreign welfare abusers they oppose… the same government that deliberately does everything it can to erode and completely destroy the Western ideal. Western grifters can’t seem to understand that government will never fix the problems it deliberately creates. If anything, the centralized power of government spearheaded by entertainer-politicians tends cannot be more antithetical to Western values.
These influencers and grifters presume to speak for Western civilization simply by posting art and quotes from Western thought leaders. They craft poetic language to appease eager readers, and to gratify their desperate-for-identity audiences - and their insecure egos. These influencers who presume to represent the West tend to idolize men they consider better than them: step-daddy authority figures. Yet, grown adults idolizing other men is undignified, and antithetical to Western ideals of critical thought, dignity, self-reliance, and defiance of authority.
The story of Prometheus teaches us that freedom, and speaking truth to power despite the cost, inspire greatness. Satire and the court jester are manifestations of freedom of speech and criticizing authority - core Western values, and vital elements of civilized discourse. Yet these discount-defenders of the West purport to champion the West as they promote anti-Western ideals. All they really do is attempt to enforce their twisted moralism, their distorted idealistic fantasy.
Reverence of authority: the poison of Western ideals
These “Western” grifters revere step-daddy “authority” figures, like pathetic military/police gimps, and snarky sleazy politicians… quite collectivist and undignified.
They revere Hitler (a caricature of a man), a useful idiot goaded into overstretching his state, thus recklessly exposing his people (whom he supposedly loved) to needless expansion, and multiple fronts against vastly outnumbering foes. Contrary to modern historical narratives, Germany was vastly outnumbered and outgunned in WW2, and was simply allowed to triumph in the first two years of the war. The Allies kept retreating because they wanted a larger war. They needed to convince their people that a German threat was real. Pushing back Germany in the start of the war would have been too easy, and too unprofitable.
Germany was never a threat to the allies - far from it. They only wanted Germany to appear as this “massive threat” to justify massive spending for the military industrial complex. Germany was goaded into a truly hopeless war it was doomed to lose - just like ISIS was.
Hitler was the Christmas gift that kept on giving for the global military industrial complex. He delivered his people to the mass rape, murder, and literal forced labour (slavery) by the Allies and Soviets. This happened because Hitler had introduced to his people the Eastern ideals of mindless totalitarianism, collectivist socialism, and expansionist conquest - he even used an Eastern mystic symbol (swastika) to brand his tribalism. Yet useful idiots of today consider Hitler a “Western” ideal.
Today’s weak and desperate Westerners have no values to hold on to, so they hopelessly cling on to loser “leaders” like Hitler. They fantasize Hitler as someone who projects the power they so desperately lack. And what power was that? Hitler was no hero; he was a tragic loser. Hitler failed miserably with his stupid decisions - and his people suffered immensely because of it. Hitler was elected due to the Germans’ discontent over the Treaty of Versailles, yet his idiotic leadership brought vastly more harm than that treaty ever could. And this is they guy they revere?
Hitler was a gift to the Allies, since he was baited by them into overstretching and handing them everything they didn’t get initially from the Treaty of Versailles: the entirety of Germany. The Allies allowed Hitler to get into power… They praised, supported, and goaded him into militarism... They made him 1938 TIME Man of the Year… Global high society was openly supporting Hitler up until 1939. They propped him up and goaded him into action.
Yes, boycotting the Treaty of Versailles was a good thing, since it had caused the Weimar hyperinflation. This made it seem like Hitler delivered an economic miracle. But all he did was free (somewhat) the German economy from that treaty, and then apply Keynesian fiscal policy - a short-sighted economic policy of massive government spending for future generations to pay the bill for. Yes, Hitler was one of the first proponents of the Keynesian scam, which still plagues us today.
Westerners are truly desperate for ideals if they have to resort to idolizing the biggest losers from their history. They have nowhere to hold on to so they grasp at straws. They feel so hopelessly powerless and uninspired that they’ll indulge any fantasy to feed their willing delusions of strength. What they forget is that power comes from higher ideals, not from gay adoration of and mindless submission to step-daddy figures.
Why is the West dying?
The West is dying because of confusion… Not only did Westerners lose scope of their defining values, but they have replaced them with antithetical values. Today’s Westerners dishonor and betray their forefathers with anti-Western values of uncivilized totalitarianism, petty moralism, and Marxist collectivism. For example, a slogan of the Qanonsense “conservatives” was “Where we go one we go all,” a mindless cry of herd mentality, and blind unquestionable servitude. And they can’t even see how antithetical this is with the ideals they presume to hold dear.
Westerners have discarded the Western value of freedom, and have subverted themselves back into the religiosity of authority-worship and false-idolatry. They adore “leader” figures because they forgot the freedom and individualism that have inspired Western thought since antiquity. Westerners colonizing the New World were mostly people fleeing authoritarian monarchies; they preferred the wild stateless unknown over the “safety” of government rule. Now, their ingrate descendants value Marxist tribalist collectivism and leader-obsessed totalitarianism - both the left and the right. The West is dying because of braindead herd mentality, especially in people who presume to define Western ideals. They erode Western values the most, because they distort their definition.
And when you call them out on their moral inconsistency, they have the gall to call you “doomer” and “hopeless” - quite the contrary. They are the true doomers, if they must resort to believing hopeful falsehoods to mask their hopeless desperation. They are the naive idiots playing the violin on the sinking Titanic. You, on the other hand, are courageous enough to face reality, and try to salvage as many of your people (and their spirit) as possible. As you help people onto the lifeboats, the violinists sing appeasing tunes of Eastern religiosity, collectivism, and authoritarianism. They find comfort in their sick obsession with daddy-figures, mindless conquest, and gay military “brotherhood.” If only they knew…
The underlying cause
So, why did Westerners lose their values?
Unfortunately, reverence of state authority - this anti-Western value - has been ingrained into our psyches from a young age. With each generation, we are conditioned more and more by state-controlled media and state-enforced curricula to passively revere and obey “authority.” We are implicitly called to deny our self-determination in favor of tribalistic collectivist group-think.
Government schooling-indoctrination (and its extension through the passivity of university and the will-breaking taming of military conscription) is an effective brainwashing technique that conditions us to instinctively obey “authority” without question. Critical thinking and questioning authority are FUNDAMENTAL Western ideals, now largely lost.
A fundamental Western value is critical thought. It takes integrity, self-ownership, and philosophical doubt to ask the question: “Who are you to govern over me?”
It’s understandable, really. Those in government have no choice but to surrender to their power lust. Tolkien’s masterpieces are all about this base human vulnerability; this inability to resist the immoral hedonistic desire to hold power over others. Once a human tastes power, he desperately needs more of it; he needs to feel obeyed. Those in positions of power feel an uncontrollable desire to control others more and more.
Western values are a threat to those in power. How far can perceived “authority” go with people who value critical thinking? So, the power-hungry must kill the Western spirit, if they wish to maintain their hold over the minds of plebs. And kill it they do. It is no accident that younger generations - relentlessly propagandized by the state - tend to idolize Marxism and socialist collectivism. Both the right wing and the left wing worship their brand of collectivism; they both shame individualism, smearing it as “selfish,” “hedonistic,” and “immoral.” Indeed, the Western ideal of civilized discourse (from Greco-Roman and Germanic traditions) is lost. In its place, Eastern shaming has taken over.
Younger generations maintain the delusion that “we need government enforcement to be free,” or “we need war for peace.” Their cognitive dissonance is profound… some dye their hair blue and screech against windmills. Others pretend to “value freedom” while idolizing tyrannical empires and squealing that “military servitude to your government is a duty” …two sides of the same insane coin.
What can be done?
I don’t know if there is a solution to this predicament at this late stage. Government-ism has spread and metastasized into every aspect of the human experience. Our over-reliance on government has eroded our integrity and dignity to the point where we have no will left to claim self-ownership. We have forgotten our Western values of freedom, critical thought, and the ideal of individualism over collectivism...
This is not hopeless pessimism. What’s truly hopeless is the desperation of willingly deluding ourselves with false hope. It takes bravery to accept harsh truth and admit it to ourselves. Only then can we embrace logic to try to find viable solutions.
It may prove helpful to find the courage to acknowledge the painful truth: that Western ideals are fading. Acknowledge the truth, not because it is the righteous thing to do, but because it is the most useful.
Truth, after all, is the highest Western ideal.
Thank you for reading.
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This is awesome! Far above my pay grade. However, as I read this I cannot help but think of the distraction of consumerism and entertainment. Citizens lost their focus on what was being done to them because they became enamored with trinkets. Most of us were guilty. We were told that the media was our buffer (advocate)to protect us against propaganda, and to borrow a phrase, misinformation (LIES). We have been too easily duped.
No, the West is not dying, the West already died, a long time ago. Religion, philosophy, history, all that died in Western man. All that remains is an empty shell that sooner or later will collapse, either under its own weight or the onslaught of barbarians from within and without. The inhabitants of the West, I won't say Westerners, they are only physical descendants, but not in heart and spirit. They surrendered their heads and hands to ideas that echo empty in the shell of the former West. The laws of physics and time will take their toll, as will the laws of nature embodied in the vultures that gather around the former life and the future corpse.