Western civilization is not in decline – it is in reversal.
Western civilization was not born with fully formed ideas of individual freedoms and a liberty protected by a government dependent on its people. It evolved into those positions over centuries of constant learning – and that learning included making mistakes - like slavery. Most mistakes, when recognized by most of the people, were eliminated. The truth is, if it weren’t for Great Britain and the US, slavery might still exist.
Western civilization was built on the will of the majority and the majority’s shared idea that what it represented was better for all people, not just those at the upper levels of society. While some cultures advanced only to decline (like the Islamic world) and others (like those in Africa) remained in savagery, Western civilization continued to produce innovations and push boundaries in search of new economic, social and philosophical opportunities.
But majorities aren’t mass conspiracies. There are no meetings, no dues and no subcommittees that decide what minority is to be destroyed or disadvantaged this week. There is no social committee to decide what movies or literature we are going to watch or read. Just because a majority is powerful and drives the culture, that doesn’t mean that the majority is out to get any minority.
Majorities are powerful because they are a majority, they are not a majority because they are powerful. In today’s mass media, minorities are always portrayed as somehow being more noble, honorable, righteous, and socially correct than the majority, a premise that often stretches credulity – but minorities are a minority for some reason. In some way, they are judged inferior or are so radically divergent from the mores of the majority that fewer people identify with them.
The media is also complicit in this process as it has the power to project minorities as more pervasive and powerful than they are. Efforts to make the majority “sensitive” to the plight of this or that minority have resulted in an over-representation of many minorities in many facets of everyday life.
The reversal in Western civilization is that it now seems we are expected to elevate the minority over the majority – not in the sense of protecting their liberty to do as they wish (Ayn Rand famously said that the individual is the smallest minority) but in the sense of allowing minority’s wishes to determine how the majority must act.
Americans have always rooted for the underdog, but somewhere along the way the idea that the majority, the stronger side, is always immoral, evil, or oppressive and the minority, or the weaker side, is always moral, righteous, and oppressed.
This is a belief that is especially prominent on the left.
Based solely on the oppressor/oppressed dialectic, it allows significant things to be overlooked as the left flocks to support a particular minority.
Look at a few facts about the current protests on campuses – the theme is allegedly Gazans/Palestinians are oppressed and peaceful, Israel is the oppressor, committing genocide.
But:
Israel ceded the Gaza Strip to the “Palestinians” in 2005.
Hamas, a known and designated terrorist organization, operates openly in Gaza.
Hamas controls the Gazan government and is supported by 70% of the people there.
Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jewish people, mirrored in the chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
Hamas attacked innocent Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and committed atrocities while recording video of and emailing and posting them on the internet.
Lots to overlook to claim support for Hamas as “oppressed”.
The idea that a minority or a weaker entity is righteous simply because they are a minority is insane.
Ummmm…slavery DOES still exist, especially in the ME and Africa…some things never change.
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, as a member of the worlds smallest minority, red hair, blue eyse, I keep waiting for the powers that be to take up my cause. I'm not holding my breath though. suffocation is not on my list of things to do.
Most redheads have brown or green eyes. the red/blue combo is the smallest number of us soul stealing gingers.