This fascinating book gives an excellent defense of the worthiness of Western Civilization as well as the dastardliness of its enemies at home and abroad, but makes two critical errors; being far too pessimistic about the future prospects of the West and too closely identifying the West with European races. The West (based on the Judeo-Christian tradition) is not primarily about race or national origin, but about ideas, values and beliefs. Anyone can embrace (or reject) these ideas. Those who embrace them will succeed, those who reject them won't. This has been true in the past and will continue to be true in the future.
In the introduction, the author sets up the crisis by blaming the cultural and social revolution that has continued to rock our nation since the 1960s. "The chasm in our country is not one of income, ideology, or faith, but of ethnicity and loyalty" (2). I'd counter that the key divider is still (and always will be) faith, along with its cousins, ideology and loyalty. Admittedly, there is a huge outreach task to be done among those new to our nation and its ways. Describing the cultural divide, he writes "what was right and true yesterday is wrong and false today. What was immoral and shameful - promiscuity, abortion, euthanasia, suicide - has become progressive and praiseworthy" (5). He continues: "the new culture rejects the God of the Old Testament and burns its incense at the alters of the global economy. Kipling's 'Gods of the Market Place' have shouldered aside the God of the Gospels. Sex, fame, money, power - those are what our new America is all about" (6). But as Christians we know the Truth remains. While some may try to confuse things, the Truth remains and will eventually prevail. For believers, there is plenty of room for optimism, since we ve been promised that Good will ultimately defeat Evil and also that this victory does not depend on us. All that s required for our participation is continued alignment with the Victor and His values.
Mr. Buchanan quotes Russian-Jewish playwright Israel Zangwill from his famous 1908 play The Melting Pot: "America is God's crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming," but Buchanan adds that the immigration wave is no longer coming from Europe (rather Asia, Africa and Latin America) and no longer melting and reforming. The demographic numbers indicate that Europeans will be just another minority in America in the next 50 years.
One irony here is the Catholic Buchanan decrying the loss of the primarily Protestant founding values of America. In her early years, the (anti-democratic, monarchical, authoritarian) Catholics were no great supporters of the "Great Experiment" and were (properly) viewed with suspicion as papists by most colonists. In the last century, American Catholics have managed to adjust to the success of American values, even exerting a liberalizing influence on their church at Vatican II.
Buchanan tries to portray the battle as already lost by portraying the differences between major parties as inconsequential. But then later on the same page he affirms that "the rancorous intensity" with which the 2000 election result was fought proves the depth of the moral divide (and, we could add, the enduring electoral strength on the side of traditional values). He seems not to want to acknowledge that there are still many faithful and that they re not all of European ancestry. It seems as if his resounding electoral defeats of 1992, 1996 and 2000 (mainly due to his unconservative values; protectionism, anti-immigrationism and Eurocentrism) has unduly darkened his perspective. Buchanan notwithstanding, this is a fine time to be a conservative/libertarian in support of America s founding values.
The author tries to contrast the Bolshevik Revolution (which failed) with the 60s Revolution (which, he says, has succeeded). But the comparison must support an optimistic conclusion. If even the might and duration of 70 years of atheist communism (not to mention nazism and other forms of totalitarianism) was no match for the West's Truth-based Judeo-Christian values, why would anyone think that the already ailing, manifestly morally and intellectually bankrupt liberalism of the 60s would be? He's giving modern liberalism far too much credit and the enduring Truth (embodied by Western culture) far too little. I find myself wondering if this book is just an extended case of excellent Buchanan hyperbolic rhetoric for purposes of effective debate!
Wrapping up the introduction, he drops what he sees as the biggest bomb, not only are we enmeshed in a culture war and drowning in mass immigration, the European races are dying off. Quoting Gustave Le Bon s classic The Crowd to the affect that ideas truly do matter, he suggests that the new thinking will eventually lead to our ruin. "Now that all the Western empires are gone, Western Man, relieved of his duty to civilize and Christianize mankind, reveling in luxury in our age of self-indulgence, seems to have lost his will to live and reconciled himself to his impending death. Are we in the twilight of the West? Is the Death of the West irreversible? Let us review the pathologist s report" (10).
Chapter 1 (Endangered Species)...[to be continued]
Chapter 2 ( Where Have All The Children Gone? )...
Chapter 3 (Catechism of a Revolution)...
Chapter 4 (Four Who Made A Revolution)...
Chapter 5 (The Coming Great Migrations)...
Chapter 6 (La Reconquista)...
Chapter 7 (The War Against the Past)...
Chapter 8 (De-Christianizing America)...
Chapter 9 (Intimidated Majority)...
Chapter 10 (A House Divided)...
1 The New Majority 1973 (Girard Essay, see br-wtrww)
2 Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories 1974
3 Right from the Beginning 19xx
4 The Great Betrayal 1998
5 A Republic, Not an Empire 1999 (see br-rne)
6 The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civ.
2002
7 Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neocons Subverted the Reagan Rev. and Hijacked the Bush Presidency 2004 (see br-wtrww)
8 State of Emergency: The 3rd World Invasion and Conquest of America 2006
9 Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing America Apart 2007 (see rvw)
10 Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
2008 (5/26 Memorial Day, see br-wtrww)
11 The Suicide of a Superpower: ? 2011
12 The Greatest Comeback [on Nixon] 2014