a modest proposal

Submitted by Tristan (United States), Dec 18, 2005 at 03:39

Let me start by saying that I found Dr Pipe's article both lucid and chilling.

Perhaps I am indulging in wish fulfillment here but there does seem a more practical solution to the immigration problem in Europe. That those of us in the Occidental Diaspora (U.S., Canada, Australia, Et al. ) come home. I realize this fantasy is predicated on the notion the the childern of Europe leave homes that for centuries were held dear to come back to an uncertain life in uknown parts. But it does solve the issue of population. The thought, I know, is born from the despair and desire to help in some way.

I also think, in reading the comments section, a larger truth about human nature has been lost in the sea of perspectives, and it is this...

The realm of human history is and has been mainly a slaughter-house. All men are both Devil and Angel.

Yes, Western Civilization has been responsible for some of the great horrors in history; the crusades, colonialsm, the holocaust. To be honest one must own up to this. But horrors are not the perview of the west alone, nor has our violence been any more savage then any other tribe of man. How soon we forget how Aztecs treated their war prisoners? What of the rape of Nanking? The killing fields of Cambodia? What of Rwuanda? or Darfur?

But enough negative, what of the positive? Western Civilization has given the world the Reniassance, the Enlightenment, The scientific worldview, and fostered the value of the individual and the rule of law. Of all other civilizations that have been on this earth, can such feats, or those as noteworthy be claimed by any other? I think not.

Do you think we would be having this discussion were we in Bejing? How's about Tehran?

For myself I hope this is all doomsaying. I would not see the homes of Shakespeare, Voltaire, Motzart, and Michelangelo be brought low. If true, it would be a fate worse then that which felled Rome. At least the barbarians that came over the Rhine wanted to become Romans and had the decency to adopt the culture before they tore it asunder.

P.S. as a classicist I can't let this one issue go without redress, The gentleman who stated it was "Islamic knowledge that enlightened the ignorant Christians" after the dark ages has a specious arguement at best. Most scholarship agrees that the majority of the knowledge that was gained in Europe after the crusades came by way of the classic texts coming back to Italy from the faltering Byzantine Empire. The fact that a Muslim power brought Byzantium down is rather interesting as well.

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