Will Western Civilization Survive?
This is a guest post by Mike Dee. Mike is an engineer from Western NY who is on the right side of the issues (like wind energy). He frequently writes for local papers there. I’ve enjoyed his commentaries, and asked that he do a special one for us. Enjoy!
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The Woke Left seems intent on destroying Western Civilization - what liberated people from a history of servitude and poverty. In its place the Woke Left promotes Statism, wherein the people are merely servants of the State.
Western Civilization (or Tradition) is set of cultural norms developed over 500 years in Western Europe and America, with roots in ancient Greek philosophy and Judeo-Christian beliefs. It is based on the application of reason (rather than authority) and the belief in the Natural Rights of the sovereign individual – the assumption that a person has a Right to exist for his own sake, rather than to serve the collective State.
America’s Declaration of Independence explicitly defines the sovereign individual’s Natural Rights: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This may be the most consequential statement in the history of human governance.
Natural Rights imply equality before law, and that the individual has the right (and responsibility) to choose one’s own course as long as it does not interfere with another’s rights. Freedom from Government is the core of our tradition. No kings. No commissars. No DEI. No tyranny of the majority. No involuntary collectivism. No forced socialism. No communists. No Marxism. No fascists. No specially privileged groups.
Western Tradition also believes that objective truth exists, whereas the Woke Left subscribes to Postmodernist beliefs that there are no objective truths, and that each person is entitled to their own subjective truths (relativism). They purposely delude themselves that truth is whatever they want it to be. Hence, Woke Leftism is indistinguishable from any cult religion.
The assault on Natural Rights began with the perverse ideas behind the French Revolution (particularly Rousseau) and was followed by the “Communist Confession of Faith” (Engels) and the “Communist Manifesto” (Marx and Engels). After the global meltdown of Socialism in the 1990’s, the Left came upon “Woke” and re-invented themselves as “neo-Marxists”, carrying the same tired “oppressed vs. oppressor” narrative. Their only goal is ultimate power over people.
The Western tradition of individual sovereignty directly contradicts the Woke Left’s demand for centralized control of human affairs. Under Socialism (in any form) there can be no Natural Rights and no private property; people are merely termites in a colony with no inherent value other than serving the State. History makes this clear.
Hence, the fundamental difference between the Western Tradition and the Left’s Socialism is the existence of Natural Rights. In the Western Tradition, a Natural Right is an action that an individual can take that cannot be infringed by others or by the State, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.
A Natural Right does not require that the individual be given anything – only that the individual cannot be prevented from exercising the Right. Hence, Person A can speak freely, and Person B (or the State) cannot infringe on Person A’s Right. Likewise, Person B is under no obligation to agree with Person A, or to even listen.
In contrast, the Woke Left does not acknowledge Natural Rights, but rather recognizes only special privileges conferred by the State to specific groups. The Woke Left has made a living inventing “Group Rights” under the oxymoronic term “Social Justice”. But justice – by its very nature - can only be served on an individual basis.
Hence, group-based Rights require the State to abridge the Natural Rights of others. The best example of this is DEI, where specific demographic groups are given preferential treatment, while denying the Natural Rights of others. DEI is simply State sponsored systemic discrimination.
Because the Woke Left does not believe in objective truth, men can have babies and play women’s sports. Again, the Natural Rights of some (say, biological females) are violated to give special privileges to delusional biological males.
The nonsensical “Right to Free Healthcare” pushed by the Left is a utopian dream. No healthcare is free – somebody must provide the healthcare service regardless of who is forced to pay for it. Neither healthcare nor anything else can be free unless you view slave labor as being free and can compel someone to slavery. But “Free” always sounds good to the unthinking person who doesn’t mind enslaving others for his own selfish purposes. Neither do they ask, “how much healthcare?” Canada’s universal system answered that question by denying care and pushing euthanasia.
As ridiculous as Leftist Woke ideology sounds, it has gained a foothold, particularly among the most naïve part of our society – our young people. They have no intellectual defense because they have not only been deluged with progressive indoctrination by our public school system, but they also have not been taught the skill of Critical Thinking.
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This is as clear an articulated analysis
I’ve seen lately of the moral and spiritual antecedents driving the
genius of our Constitutional Republic…
with its built-in elements of the
democracy process. Kudos. f
Excellent essay! Thank you!!