Where exactly would the world be without Christianity, capitalism and free markets, and the idea of natural rights?  Without...America?

Would assembly lines and mass production have ever been thought of?  Efficiencies of scale?  Abundant and affordable goods of all kinds?  What could have brought billions out of poverty in the past several decades?  Would someone have eventually discovered electricity?  Who would have invented dental floss, hearing aids, cardiac defibrillators, radiocarbon dating, traffic lights, crash test dummies, lasers, LEDs, chemotherapy, microwave ovens, video games, mobile phones, fiber optic cables, email, personal computers, skyscrapers, suspension bridges, airplanes, the phonograph, the light bulb, the internet, and the Global Positioning System, just to name a few of the mind-boggling number of American inventions that have so greatly benefited mankind humankind?

There is much talk today among the woke about "appropriation" and "reparations."  Appropriation?!  Virtually everyone else in the world has appropriated American inventions, technology, and ideas.  (Or stolen them outright, as is the case with China.)  Perhaps reparations are due to the United States from all the countries that have immeasurably benefited from its excellence and largess, and the countless millions who would not otherwise be alive today.

It is true that the American founders themselves gleaned much from Europe's Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason.  Thomas Jefferson utilized some of John Locke's ideas in composing the Declaration of Independence, particularly Locke's notion of natural rights.  Sadly, today, Western nations are intent on rushing headlong into what can only be called the Confusion, or the Age of Stupidity.  Where once we pondered and debated the accumulated wisdom of human history and man's relation to God and His universe, today we can't even acknowledge the existence of two sexes or identify the things that differentiate them.  We in the West are on the cusp of attempting to banish God-- and free markets — to the trash bin of history, while elevating and celebrating entitlement, sloth, and amorality to/as virtues.

Jacob Bronowski wrote of The Ascent of Man, but, to my knowledge, he did not anticipate our demise.  The Descent of Man that we are currently experiencing could be permanent, due to the complete control that leftists now have over virtually every institution in most Western nations.

In America — America! — today, the concept of free speech, assembly, and religion is under attack, as is the right to defend oneself and one's family.  The idea of limited government is naught but a quaint, if mildly amusing, reminder of days of yore.  In 1775, Patrick Henry famously exclaimed, "Give me liberty or give me death."  Yet it now seems as if Chinese and Iranian citizens may be more willing to put themselves at risk in an attempt to gain some semblance of freedom than Americans are.

How did we get here?  By refusing to properly understand the goals and motives of the left.  By letting leftists convince us that there is no objective truth, and that morality is 100% fungible and subjective.  And by somehow refusing to acknowledge that this can only lead to utter decline and devastation. Someone once said, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist."  Well, these are the corollaries.  Many of today's leftists are similarly brilliant at being evil.  And they have now completed their "long march through the institutions" that they promised us they were embarking on back in the 1960s.  Too bad too few of us believed them.  It was about the only time they told the truth.

I once asked an "educator," at my son's parent-teacher conference, why he thought the United States is so prosperous and successful.  He told me, "It's only because we are a large country with lots of natural resources and friendly neighbors and two oceans for our borders."  In response, I asked him how he would explain the staggering economic success of tiny Hong Kong (when it was essentially a British protectorate) with the population density of a massive ant colony vis-à-vis the fact that Russia — the largest country in the world and sporting the most resources — has historically had a tiny economy and an inability to quickly or decisively defeat much smaller nations like France, Japan, and Finland in military conflicts.

He did not respond, other than to shake his head at me and sputter something akin to "well, your time is up."

This is essentially what those on the left are saying to us now.  They have no answers and will not abide the truth, so they fling insults at the rest of us and say, "Your time is up."  And then they say that if our beliefs prevail, it will be the end of "our democracy."

If the West — and particularly the United States — encourages its own demise via what amounts to assisted suicide, the rest of the world, too, may grow figuratively, if not literally, dark.  Possibly forever.

Who could pay reparations for that?

Image via Max Pixel.