UNCA D is no blogger-come-lately on Western Civilization. Since Day One, Unca D’s motto (top of page) has declared the author to be in love with it. One of Unca D’s “Big Ideas” (right column) says this:
There is such a thing as civilization, and among all other civilizations, present and past, none other measures up to Western Civilization. Those who seek to destroy the civilized order of things by, for example, piloting airliners into tall buildings, are dangerous. But they are less dangerous than . . .
. . . children of the West who so thoroughly doubt or dislike their own civilization that they always speak badly of it and, when pressed, find themselves unwilling to call evildoers by their proper name: barbarians. (Lightly edited.)
My disparagement of children of the West was an allusion to Hannah Arendt’s quotable quote: “Every generation, civilization is invaded by barbarians. We call them ‘children.’”
Jonah Goldberg explicates:
As babies we come into the world with the same programming as Viking, Hun or caveman babies. These barbarians need to be civilized and that’s a job done primarily by families, which is why the days are long and the years are short. We teach barbarians how to be citizens in the broadest sense of the word, through formal education, religious teaching, social norms and the modeling of proper behavior. In other words, we assimilate people into a culture.
Building a civilization is the work of centuries. Tearing it down, Ms. Arendt suggests, is the work of one generation. Are we that generation? Are our children that generation?
Once upon a time, Western Civilization was a required subject. I studied it at Rice University under the legendary Katherine Fischer Drew. Back then, sending a graduate into the world without a working knowledge of Western Civilization would have been shameful.
Among the enlightened ones in today's universities, however, the only proper opinions of Western Civilization are indifference or outrage, the latter being de rigueur among the Woke. To declare pride in Western Civilization is to announce oneself as bigot and ignoramus.
Back when I read the thing, The Houston Chronicle loved this quotation attributed to Gandhi: “What do I think of Western Civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.”
"Very good idea" is a clever rhetorical device. It marks the editorialist as cultured – another word for civilized – for knowing Ghandi, it critiques Western Civilization from the perspective of a nonwesterner, and it mocks Western Civilization for failing to live up to its ideals.
This is the go-to leftist critique of almost all western institutions and traditions: They're imperfect; they fail to live up to their ideals.
The leftist prescription to this outrage is always the same: Shut up, give me your money, and do as I say. The unstated premise is that the leftists will, if given power, replace the imperfect with the perfect, usually some species of socialism, always run by an enlightened elite that includes their very own sweet selves.
The left wishes to tear down that which has proved itself worthy, however imperfectly, and replace it with systems that bear a remarkable similarity to Cuba, Venezuela, the former USSR, and North Korea . . . or, more locally and less dramatically -- so far -- New York, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore, and San Francisco.
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What has any of this go to do with the American presidential contest of 2020?
Everything.
As a generalization, Donald John Trump represents those who have pride in Western Civilization, either directly or indirectly through its most successful exemplar, America, and who wish to build upon its success.
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., represents the mockers of Western Civilization and America, who wish to tear them down and rebuild them in the image of something else.
This is why your hear clucking from the left about how America needs to be fundamentally transformed. Not reformed: transformed. Torn down and started over. Transformed was an Obama word, but he soon learned to keep his radical goals to himself and quit admitting was he was up to. The new generation, though: They're all in on transformation.
What is Western Civilization? Mr. Goldberg likens it to “a party platform with a bunch of planks.” Look at his list, plank by plank. It will help you understand why Mr. Trump is the better candidate for those who love Western Civilization and America.
Support for human rights. Human rights is a western idea, its apotheosis being “all men are created equal.” In this view, human rights are created by God and are inalienable. They are who we are, rights-bearing creatures. The purpose of government is to preserve these rights through ordered liberty.
The Bill of Rights is a list of things government must not do, out of respect for preexisting human rights. “Congress shall make no law respecting . . . .” These are called negative rights, rights defined as protected against government interference.
The left has an entirely different view. However noble its intentions, says the left, the old system has failed. It is not enough to have equality of opportunity. That's old school.
What we need is equality of outcomes through beneficent actions by the government. Step one, always, is to taking money from one group and giving it to another, politically favored group.
The left rejects the idea of negative rights and demands positive rights. These are things government must do. For example, it must guarantee that everyone has food, housing, education, and the like, and in equal measures.
If you believe America’s power and wealth and goodness are organic byproducts of the old system of human rights, and if you believe that liberty and equality of opportunity are the goal, Mr. Trump is your man.
If you believe the old system is archaic and should be fundamentally transformed to promote equality of outcome, enforced by a much-enlarged government, you will naturally wish to vote for Mr. Biden.
For the record, Martin Luther King, Jr., believed in equality of opportunity.
Belief in the rule of law. One hardly knows where to begin. The rule of law is under unremitting attack, and has been for decades. Many battles are already lost.
By common consent of the citizens -- but without resort to the old-fashioned idea of amending the Constitution -- the federal government now regularly creates departments and programs with no constitutional warrant. The U.S. Supreme Court invents rights without recourse to either the Constitution or statutory law.
It is an open secret, for example, that a woman’s right to an abortion was invented because it was, in the opinion of seven justices, a good thing, not because the right to an abortion can be found in any recognizable form in the U.S. Constitution. That's what the old dead white meant, don't you see, when they put "equal protection of the laws" into the Constitution. If you don't believe me, dig'em up and ask them. The U.S. Supreme Court engaged in the most astonishing mental and moral gymnastics to create the right to an abortion. The justices did it because they could (who's to say no?) and because believed they should. Under the new dispensation, there's nothing they cannot do. This is why the left is so passionate about controlling the Supreme Court. It's a good shortcut. No need to amend the Constitution. No need to write a law. Just turn it over the the Court.
Take another case. Federal law says immigrants who come here without legal authority – even children brought by their parents – can be deported. That’s the law. Congress wrote it. There can be no serious debate about what the law says.
The president’s constitutional duty is quite simple: to see that the laws, including immigration laws, are faithfully executed, period. No president has power to change that law by executive order. Yet President Barack Hussein Obama did just that, after having said repeatedly (and correctly) that he had no power to do it.
Mr. Trump properly challenged Mr. Obama’s act. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the executive order was unlawful, but refused to overturn it. Mr. Trump, it seems, had not crossed all his t’s and dotted all his i’s.
In this, the court itself undermined the rule of law. It did so to postpone action until after the November election, probably in the hope that a Democratic victory would make the case go away. This is not how the rule of law is supposed to work.
Mr. Trump, reminded again – as if he needed reminding – that lawlessness pays, promptly wrote his own completing executive order to protect the same favored class of illegal immigrants from the federal law he is constitutionally obliged, as was his predecessor, to faithfully execute.
For the record, in case anyone is confused, the proper answer for changing immigration law about how to treat children whose parents brought them to America, illegally, is for Congress to change the law.
And for the record, President Obama who theoretically had the votes to change the law in his first two years, never even tried.
Belief in the rule of law is not quite a lost cause, but it’s being lost. One of the most important countervailing force these days is President Trump's magnificent project to add conservative lawyers to the Supreme Court and lower federal courts. And by conservative, I'm not talking about political preferences. I'm talking about the radical idea the the words of our Constitution and relevant laws mean something, and these meanings constrain judges, and that is wrong to make up meanings that are more congenial to social justice warriors on the left.
If Mr. Biden wins, Democrats are also likely to further undermine the rule of law by packing the Supreme Court. The left's guiding principle this year: If we can't win under the rules in place, change the rules . . . on the number of Supreme Court justices, on how to conduct elections (by mail), and on the Senate filibuster rule that gives political minorities power to influence legislation.
A vote for Mr. Biden is for judges to violate the rule of law, not enforce it.
Leftist disdain for the rule of law is perhaps best displayed by the mob riots now wrecking many large American cities, virtually all run by Democrats. They believe, honestly it appears, that laws against arson, looting, and shooting should no longer be enforced, at least against politically favored perpetrators. They believe violent offenders with multiple arrests should be released without bail. They believe defunding their police departments. It is apparently of little consequence to the left that crime rates in most large Demcrat-run cities are soaring and minorities disproportionately suffer from the natural and intended consequences lawlessness.
The rule of law is an enemy of barbarians everywhere. Democratic lawmakers and law enforcers in places such as Minneapolis have sided, directly or indirectly, with barbarians who now rule many of their streets.
Mr. Biden will say nothing to offend the barbarian wing of the Democratic party. Mr. Trump at least recognizes barbarism when he sees it.
So, bottom line, with Mr. Trump you support the rule of law with better judges and a saner view of how to deal with open lawlessness.
Dedication to democracy. More on this later. For now, pay attention to the extraordinary efforts by Democrats to undermine democracy by turning elections into months-long adventures in creative vote-counting.
Their real purpose is to throw the next presidential election into doubt and determine the winner, if possible, through political power, inventive vote counting, and lawsuit upon lawsuit.
Chaotic elections favor Democrats. It’s that simple. This is cynical and barbarous. Mr. Trump is on the right side of this issue.
Free speech. Almost all proponents of speech codes and the cancel culture will vote for Mr. Biden, I believe. And almost all proponents of free speech will vote for Mr. Trump. Which side are you on?
Freedom of conscience. It is not enough, these days, not to be a racist. One must be an anti-racist, which is to say that one must hold approved opinions about matters of race and recite them on demand. Old-fashioned loyalty oaths are nothing compared to the struggle sessions that demand recitation of whatever inanities, political ideas, and disputable opinions are being pushed that day.
Many universities, perhaps most, and more than a few corporations now have official thought police (though they prefer the title, diversity officers) who can ruin the careers of faculty, students, and employees by declaring them guilty of a an ever-shifting list of thought crimes.
Every day brings another story. A university that withdraws admission to an incoming freshman who posts pro-Trump sentiments on Facebook. A professor fired for refuses to attend mandatory classes on white privilege.
The recently posted (and hastily withdrawn) Smithsonian poster, “White Culture in the United States,” lists other old-time virtues now seen as thought crimes: believing hard work is the key to success, respecting authority, planning for the future, delaying gratification.
I believe most people who want to deny your freedom of conscience are Biden supporters, and most Trump supporters favor freedom of conscience, not least because it is conservative and traditional ideas and ideals that are being mocked and outlawed.
Admiration for science and the scientific method. The left claims a monopoly on science as a guide for making public policy, then cheerfully ignores whatever science conflicts with the policies it prefers.
The science is pretty clear, for example, on the benefits of rearing children in two-parent families. Say that to a Woke leftist, however, and you will be declared a racist and sexist.
What about the science of hydrochloroquine as a preventative or treatment for Covid-19? All the left needs to know is that Mr. Trump said nice things about the drug. Case closed. Hydrochloroquine is now officially a nonmedicine and its proponents wish to kill old ladies in nursing homes.
The left serially abuses science to find justification for imposing bad social and economic policies, and is completely unembarrassed when its apocalyptic predictions fail, one after the other.
The Smithsonian’s poster says admiration for science and the scientific method is a marker of white culture. Whites, says the Smithsonian, favor “objective, rational linear thinking,” “cause and effect relationships,” and “quantitative emphasis.” Guilty on all counts.
Science exaggerators and prevaricators can vote for Mr. Biden. I’ll go with Mr. Trump. He is no paragon of scientific virtue, but he is the most powerful warrior on the battlefield against the others.
Curiosity about other cultures. Jonah Goldberg writes:
The irony is that the willingness to entertain the possibility that some other culture has something important to say to us is actually one of the hallmarks of Western civilization . . . . We “borrow” stuff from other cultures constantly, starting with Christianity itself.
This is particularly true of America, which is why our menus read like the requested meal plans from a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. This profound lack of self-awareness manifests itself most acutely among progressives who wear their Europe-envy on their sleeves. Oh, they’re so much more civilized over there. Well, what civilization do you think “over there” is part of?
The left accuses conservatives and traditionalists of provincialism when we show insufficient curiosity about or respect for other cultures, then accuses us of appropriating other cultures when we enjoy a taco or a pizza.
I suspect the cultural bullies will mostly vote for the Democrat, so I’ll go the other way.
Property rights. Ask store owners in Minneapolis and other Democratic cities what they think about property rights. Then ask the barbarians who burned and looted their stores. And the Democratic officeholders, including Mr. Biden, who refuse to condemn the arsonists and looters, or who do so, sotto voce, in the mildest of terms.
Mr. Biden is a grabber too. His proposes higher taxes, to expropriate as much of my property as he can and give it to government workers and favored political groups.
I'll go with Mr. Trump on this one too.
Tolerance or celebration of technological and/or cultural innovation. Stack up all the inventions and patents in the world, sort them by civilization of origin, and count the results. The West will win every time. Same with Nobel prizes. Same with movies and music and you name it.
Mr. Biden promises to increase taxes and regulations—all for the best of motives, of course, but without heed to how his policies will depress technological and cultural innovation and hurt the economy.
I’ll go with Mr. Trump again.
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Western Civilization has many more planks in its platform than Mr. Goldberg lists. Among them, briefly:
The nuclear family. The Smithsonian lists the nuclear family as another marker of the shameful white culture, then caricatures it: “The nuclear family: father, mother, 2.3 children is the ideal social unit”; “husband is breadwinner and head of household”; “wife is homemaker and subordinate to the husband”; and “children should have their own rooms, be independent.”
Not to be outdone, Black Lives Matter -- yes, that BLM -- lists as a goal to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
I believe folks who hate the nuclear family are more likely to support Biden, so I'll go the other way.
Religion. Many big-time Democrats, the ones with power, are open enemies of Christianity. They have written God out of their party platform. Their street warriors apparently take special satisfaction in vandalizing churches, synagogues, and religious symbols. I’m a Christian and I can take a hint. I’ll vote for the other guy.
The press. The press, functioning properly, is a bulwark of civilization. It spreads information citizens of our civilization need to enjoy the benefits of our civilization and function properly in our civilization.
The left has corrupted the American press. This is painful. Voting for Trump is a vote against the dishonest and incompetent press that afflicts our public discourse.
If you ask most major journalists today why they are journalists, the great majority—possibly as many as 90 percent—will say they want to make the world a better place.
That’s a wonderful motive for becoming a political activist. It’s a horrible motive for becoming a reporter. The right answer is very simple: to report the news, fully and fairly.
Mr. Trump is no friend of the press, but between him and The New York Times or The Washington Post, I’ll go with him.
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To my good-hearted friends on the left, it’s time you speak out against the barbarians and the hateful things they are saying and doing in the name of your party and for its benefit. Demand that your party disavow them.
Will you vote for the party that runs with barbarians? Will you not vote at all? Will you waste your vote for a third party? Or will you take a deep breath and do the right thing, painful though it is for you, and vote for the candidate who is on the right side of the battle for Western Civilization?
If Mr. Biden wins, barbarians in America and around the world will celebrate.
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