History repeating itself...with a twist?
British historian Edward Gibbon's magisterial six-volume tome, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published between 1776 and 1788, is justly considered one of the greatest works of history of all time.
I read most of it years ago, and recently was looking at it again. Among the causes for Rome's long decline and fall adduced by Gibbon was the rise of Christianity. And there are some intriguing parallels with what he wrote more than two centuries ago about the events of some 15 centuries and more ago with what we see happening in the West today, only with another "desert religion" in place of Christianity:
Gibbon cited five factors to account for how Christianity came to dominate and eventually help topple the very imperial power which once persecuted it with impunity:
I. The inflexible, and, if we may use the term, intolerant zeal of the Christians...
II. The doctrine of a future life...
III. The miraculous prowers ascribed to the primitive church...
IV. The pure and austere morals...
V. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire. Thus, the Roman myths and creeds failed to hold its adherents, further rending the fabric of Roman society.
Today, in the West, it is not the Christians who embody these characteristics of course, but rather those outsiders invited or allowed in en masse who yell Allahu Akbar! as they commit one atrocity after another while decadent Christians and post-Christians tremble, pretend not to see, or make pathetic excuses. This is the suicidal conduct of a civilization that has lost the will to live in good part because of the revolt and betrayal of its own elites. [See Christopher Lasch's 1994 book The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy.]
Related
Jihad on Churches in France, by Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute, 22 November 2023.
Watch: Carlson and Bannon: Dublin in flames - what's happening in Ireland will happen here.
Dutch Voters Come Out for Geert Wilders and End to Islamization.
Islamophobia: Why We Need It In America, by Frosty Wooldridge, 5 November 2023.
Three Dimensions of Ideology: "Conservatives View Things Along A Civilized/Barbaric Axis…", by John Derbyshire, 20 January 2013:
Conservatives view things along a civilized/barbaric axis, liberals along an oppressed/oppressor axis, and libertarians along a freedom/coercion axis. Conservatives will thus favor things that correlate well with (in particular, Western) civilization, while opposing things that correlate with poorly civilized societies or that would directly contradict salient features of civilization. Progressives, on the other hand, don't care about civilization - they care about defending the oppressed and opposing the oppressors. The "civilized" side can be the wrong side if it's taking on the role of an oppressor. And Libertarians don't see civilization or oppressors - they only want to know if someone is being coerced to do something - that's the wrong side.