The Closing of Civilization in Europe

By Aussiegirl

Update: This piece has engendered such informative and insightful replies that I've republished it here to include all the comments so far.

The Brussels Journal is an excellent source of conservative thinking in Europe, and here is but one example, a beautiful and passionate essay by one of the lone prophets, Paul Belien, on Europe's cultural suicide. This article perhaps best answers Scribe's questions, posed in a comment to a previous column on this subject -- precisely what is the pathology that causes the West to hate itself to the point that it commits cultural hara-kiri?

The root of the problem, as Belien so accurately states, is the fact that Europe (and the liberal-left) has lost its faith, indeed it actively rejects faith, and believing only in the the world that it sees, and the present life with no thought of an after-life it lacks understanding of the threat of Islam and the threat to its own existence.

Not only that, like the cautionary tale of Dr. Frankenstein, who tried to play God by creating a new man using only science and instead created a monster which killed its creator, the roots of the present crisis are found in the Enlightenment, which unfortunately led to Reason taking the place of the sacred rather than letting the two inform one another, which is the natural order of things. But man's Reason is of necessity limited, and unrefreshed by enlightenment and revelation from a spiritual source, it can produce only monstrosities such as we saw arise in the 20th century in the twin totalitarian evils of Communism and Nazism.

The irony is, that the very science which set man free in so many respects, has also blinded him to the other reality, the higher reality of the Divine. The ironic thing is, that of course it was Christianity which liberated man to seek science and knowledge, even though there were a few detours along the way. Only in the Western Christianized world did modern science develop. By throwing out the baby with the bathwater, the Enlightment turned into the horrors of the French Revolution. There is a reason that Communism was called "Scientific Materialism" -- and perhaps explains a lot of its appeal. To the secular mind, which admits no mysteries and unknowables, the idea that Science has now solved every problem that ever existed, that Science can understand the material world which is after all -- all that exists, because we know that nothing exists beyond that which we can see and touch and smell and taste -- this scientific label has a fatal lure.

Reason above all else will save man from the primitive urges of religious fervor is their motto. And this belief in Liberalism, Reason, Science and all its values is believed with a -- well -- religious fervor -- because to do otherwise would be to admit that we live in a universe of great unknowns and mysteries.

Basically we may say that the twin moral evils of the 20th century were at root, caused by the hubris of men who believed that their own reason, unmoored and untethered from morality handed down through faith, could produce a heaven on earth. Man has a built in need to believe in something -- and lacking and rejecting the mystery of faith and the recognition of his own spiritual center, and placing himself at the center of creation -- man attempted to play God -- with fateful results. In the 20th century these distortions produced totalitarianism with its millions of victims, oceans of of blood and tears, and the complete enslavement of the human soul. And in the 21st century we will see the complete destruction of civilization as we have known it through the logical continuation of this monumental self deception.

The Closing of Civilization in Europe The Brussels Journal

The Closing of Civilization in Europe
From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2006-02-22 22:51
Europe’s current problems are entirely self-inflicted. This does not mean, however, that the result will be less catastrophic. By subverting the roots of its own Judeo-Christian culture – a process that started with the French Enlightenment (as opposed to the Scottish Enlightenment, which was not anti-religious) – a religious and cultural vacuum was created at the heart of European civilization. The collapse of faith in its own values has, not surprisingly, led to a demographic collapse because a civilization that no longer believes in its own future also rejects procreation. Today, a new religion and culture is supplanting the old one. There is little one can do about it, but hope for a miracle.

America’s immigration problems pale in comparison with what confronts Europe. America’s major ethnic minorities – Blacks as well as Hispanics – are Christian, while the meanstream culture is also rooted in Christianity. In Europe a secularized post-Christian culture is facing a Muslim one. The secularized culture is hedonist and values only its present life, because it does not believe in an afterlife. This is why it will surrender when threatened with death because life is the only thing it has to lose. This is why it will accept submission without fighting for its freedom. Nobody fights for the flag of hedonism, not even the hedonists themselves.

One could also put it in a slightly different way: Europe lacks what America still has, namely the so-called “conservative reserves,” or as the German sociologist Arnold Gehlen explained over 30 years ago, “the reserves in national energy and self-confidence, primitiveness and generosity, wealth and potential of every kind.” Every so often I travel to the U.S. to recharge my batteries, and I am not the only European Conservative to do so. From time to time one needs to breathe the air of freedom before submerging again in the stifling atmosphere of Europe.

America’s “conservative reserves” are far stronger than Europe’s, because America, unlike secular Europe, has remained rooted to a larger extent in traditional Christian values. I do not doubt that if these values continue to decline in the U.S., American culture will collapse as European culture and civilisation have collapsed. However, America can learn from the impending European catastrophe, and avoid a similar fate.

The old European civilization – the pre-secular or the pre-post-Christian one – will live on in the U.S. If it perishes there too, mankind will relapse into the dark ages that are now taking hold of Europe, the cradle of Western civilization.

I suppose one could feel sad about all this, but sadness is not what I feel. One can feel compassion for those who die in accidents, fall in battle or get murdered (like the countless unborn children that perish every day) but can one pity those who have killed their own future for the pleasures of the present? Europe’s predicament, I repeat, is entirely self-inflicted. Not Islam is to blame. Secularism is.

The coming decade will witness the war between the values of Islam and the secular “values” of the decadent, hedonistic post-Marxist Left. We have seen the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, last November’s prelude to the French civil war, the Danish cartoon case. This is just the beginning of the beginning. I do not consider myself a pessimist, merely a realist. It is quite clear who is going to lose – and whose fault that will be.

COMMENTS

At 3:44 PM, scribe said...
An excellent book to read that shows how history repeats itself--almost exactly with our situation--is "The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill--vol 2 "Alone 1932-1940".

It is about the uphill battle Churchill and others alarmed about the fascists had to fight against the appeasers and the whole culture of indifference to national threats. It was shocking to read how far the appeasers' mentality had been compromised by self-interest, propaganda, lies, stupidity, indifference to facts and to duty, and sheer cowardliness. This mentality served to emasculate the British military preparedness in the face of a huge Nazi military build-up. It traded off nations to Hitler(like Austria and Czechoslavkia) to avoid confronting Hitler. This appeaser mentality had lost all faith in the principles it was supposed to defend. It limited its vision and its actions to merely buying time.

Then after giving Hitler most of Central Europe, this mentality placed their hopes for peace upon, and even encouraged, the Nazis to expend their strength on attacking the Soviets, on the expectation that the Nazis would then leave the West in peace. How surprised they were when the Nazis concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviets before invading France.

It is a maxim that a nation gets the leaders it deserves. Our leadership is not just the federal government--that is but the apex of the power pyramid--but it appears in every sphere of our lives, including schools, businesses, cultural institutions and even our local social clubs. The will of a culture to survive and to fight for what's needed for the common good must permeate all levels of society. We have not trained good leaders for a long time because we have neglected the basis upon which our culture and government rests. Now many of our children can't even read, let alone recite from heart the preamble to the Constitution or the Gettysburg address. Few know the Judeo-Christian culture it rests upon, or what they know of it is very much debased. How can they be expected to defend these ideas in the years ahead?

The British paid a frightful price in loss of life, property and global influence because of their unwillingness in the 1920s-1930s to deal with the Nazi/fascist/Communist threats. Now the same threats, in different guises, are coming after the West again. When are we going to take a stand and fight back?

There are many ways to fight back--first begin in your own neighborhood--be concerned about your neighbor, clean the social engineering propagandas out of the schools and make them teach reading, writing and arithmetic again. Vote for politicians who intend to defend the country or the neighborhood from the gang-mentality that's sweeping the world. Think as a community united, not as lone wolfs tearing at each other.

Tim Birdnow said...

Europe is clearly dying-just look at the demographics. The Europeans have banished Christianity, and are now incapable of standing for anything at all. They will soon be overrun by a militant people who believe in the rightness of their cause (Islam).

To be honest, European culture has lost whatever worth it had. The problem is that the Islamic world is not an acceptable replacement.

These are bad times we live in; they are reminiscent of the last days of the Roman Empire. I can imagine what it must have felt like to be a Briton,say, and watch the Empire slowly disappear.

Great post, as always!

At 10:54 PM, Scythian Princess said...

Predictably, Eastern Europe's still-strong Christianity is being overlooked as the salvation of European civilization.

It is a bit chilling to see how Ukraine, Poland and other countries in their EU quest seem to be drifting toward the affluence vs Christianity trade-off, as if Christianity were some barrier to affluence.

When will humanity realize and admit that Christianity is the most enduring bridge to civilization the world has ever known? All we have left now is remnants of that bridge, existing mostly in Eastern Europe and pockets in North America and "down under."

At the risk of committing sacrilege (or is it blasphemy?), can anyone say "Christians of the world, unite!"?


At 12:01 PM, scribe said...

Eastern Christianity has been a real bulwark against the various destroyers against Christian civilization for centuries. This a fact that's very poorly realized by the West, if at all. The West owes Eastern Christianity a huge debt, but instead, the West has only taken political advantage of the plight of eastern Christians.

The eastern Christians have especially suffered from the blows of Islam and later Communism while the West ignored their sufferings.

In Russia, the Communists nearly destroyed the Russian Orthodox church, killing tens of thousands of clergy and laity, razed thousands of churches to the ground, and plundered Christian artwork and sold the loot to the West. Later Stalin resurrected the Russian church (now known as the Moscow Patriarchate) in 1943 to serve communist purposes under Metropolitan Sergei.

But the true Church struggled on, in gulags and in exile. After the fall of Communism in Russia, the first thing that the Russians did was to rebuild their churches. The Russian church in Russia is slowly purging out its communists and reforming itself. But its influence on the Russian population, compared to before the Revolution, will probably remain much diminished. The young Russians, though, do show a great deal of interest in Christianity and many are returning to the Church.

Meanwhile, Orthodoxy in southeastern Europe, especially Serbia, is being dessimated by Islamic terrorists, often under the watchful, but uncaring eye of the UN "peace-keepers". Hundreds of Orthodox churches have been destroyed or desecrated. The Greek church has been persecuted first by the Turks, then by Communists, and now by the EU, as that organization has made unreasonable demands on Mt. Athos "The Holy Mountain".

One has to wonder why the Orthodox have had to bear the brunt of the devil's persecutions. It must be that this brand of Christianity is something that the devil really fears.

At 1:36 AM, Scythian Princess said...

Not just Orthodox but Uniate (Ukrainian) Catholics as well suffered unspeakable persecution. One priest recently canonized by the late John Paul II had been actually nailed to a wall ... essentially crucified ... by the Communists. I don't know his name, but any Ukrainian Catholic priest could tell you.

Scribe, you hit the nail on the head about this "brand" of Christianity.