A Civilizational Crisis

Painting: The Romans In Their Decadence (1847), Thomas Couture

There will be wars the like of which have never yet been seen on earth – Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888)

Rome was not destroyed by external enemies, but by internal strife. The empire tore itself apart through corruption, greed, and political infighting, leaving it vulnerable to outside forces – Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1789)

Yesterday, Iran fired 500 drone missiles into Israel, raising the possibility of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. World War I began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. Few at the time thought it would escalate the way it ultimately did. I’m not saying that this will escalate into World War III – only that it is a possibility.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, some called it Israel’s 9/11. People of goodwill hoped that the conflict would be contained but the reality is that many in the Middle East have been hostile toward Israel since its founding and would like to see it annihilated. If Iran and those of like mind decide to take this moment in an attempt to do just that, countries all over the world will be forced to take sides and make decisions. With the Russia-Ukraine War as well as tension between China and the US over Taiwan, you can see the dominos that could fall resulting in a third world war.

In addition to the increasingly dangerous geopolitical environment, Western Civilization has been infiltrated by ideological forces hostile to its moral values and continued existence. In the 1960s, The Left turned against America, regarding it as irredeemably evil, mostly based on its history of slavery and racism. When police officer Derek Chauvin choked George Floyd to death on May 25, 2020, The Left erupted in rage, tearing down statues of the Founders and other symbols of American history in a complete rejection of everything the country stands for. Wokeness – at its core a rejection of American moral worthiness – has now infiltrated the country’s bone marrow (also see “Historical Development of the Culture of Nihilism”, Top Gun Financial, April 4, 2024; “Civilizational Top: The Decline And Fall Of Liberalism”, Top Gun Financial, Jan 9, 2023; The War On The West (2022), Douglas Murray; The Suicide of the West (2020), Jonah Goldberg).

In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon showed that Rome fell not only because of the barbarian invaders but because its internal rot had made it susceptible to such an invasion. The escalation in the Middle East combined with the weakening of America’s moral self belief due to the infiltration of wokeness means that we are now potentially facing a civilizational crisis of our own.