The Crisis In Courage
John Kyl, US Senator from Arizona, has an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor that I highly recommend reading completely. It captures the essential failure that is happening in the West today as we confront islamists and rogue states. It is something that has been seen and commented on in the past as well.
WASHINGTON – In a speech to Harvard University's graduating class of 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn attacked the West's weak confrontation of communism. His words remain instructive today as we face a different ideological threat.
Mr. Solzhenitsyn warned that "The Western world has lost its civil courage…" and rhetorically asked, "Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?" He lamented that "[N]o weapons, no matter how powerful, can help the West until it overcomes its loss of willpower."
Solzhenitsyn's beliefs in faith and courage undoubtedly drew the attention of a new generation of leaders. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II – like the giants of America's founding – came to their positions of authority at a historically propitious time and helped supply the essential willpower of which Solzhenitsyn spoke. Under their strong leadership, communism collapsed, democracy and free-market economies gained currency, and liberty seemed to be on the march worldwide.
I think that is why history has been so kind to Reagan and Thatcher. They stood against that tide of defeatism that the Carter presidency epitomizes. That is why voters so resoundingly threw Carter out of office. It would be a really, really good thing for our politicians to remember. Please read the whole thing, it is well worth your time.
By TimF, February 1, 2007 @ 1:43 pm
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasure. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasure, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From great courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness;
From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependency;
From dependency to bondage.
Sir Alex Fraser Tytler
Scottish Jurist and Historian
(1742-1813)
From his 1801 Collection of Lectures
Europe seems to be somewhere between apathy and dependancy. Where is the US?
By Gaius, February 1, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
Well, that is one reason the founders set this nation up as a Republic. But the meddling over the years with their system has damaged the original controls they put in. I’m not sure where that puts us in terms of your quotation.