There are those that thought that when a simple Carpenter was executed on the Cross, “Well, that’s the end of that.” His followers thought that.
But, it seems that was simply not the case. Even if you’re not religious, it’s clear that the Cross was no defeat, just a victory in a fashion that no one would have ever expected.
Western Civilization and the basic concepts that have driven it rest on foundations that endure:
The idea that what is True, Beautiful, and Good is excellent and should be rewarded.
The idea that the elite work for the common good and not merely themselves.
That the basic societal unit is the family and not the individual or the state.
That our leaders are not our rulers.
That merit matters.
That the rule of law is important, but that too many laws smother freedom, and those that skirt the intent of the law are Evil.
And that neither Greece nor Rome improved when covered with foreigners, because nations, those living ties of a people bound by blood, history, language, and shared destiny matter more than any abstract economic ledger.
Western Civilization is unique, and the things that flow from it are likewise unique. Judaism is a fundamentally non-Western religion, yet Christianity is fundamentally Western. The differences are stark, and they matter. One brought a chosen people through covenant and law. The other spread a message of redemption that transformed every people it touched, planting seeds of individual dignity, ordered liberty, and the search for truth that grew into the modern world.
Rome did not exist as a market economy. It existed as a place for Romans. When that sense of shared purpose and identity waned, when the center no longer held because the people no longer saw themselves as one people with one destiny, Rome faded. These lessons repeat again and again whenever we lose the path of what Western Civilization actually is.
But we return.
We always return.
Greece fell into fragmentation and conquest, yet Rome rose from its ruins and carried forward the best of Greek thought wrapped in Roman discipline and law. Rome fell to internal decay, external pressure and a dilution of what being Roman even meant, yet in turn nation after nation in Europe rose. Each nation drew on the same inheritance, each adding its own chapter of courage and creation.
As Europe waned under the weight of its own successes and the forgetting that sometimes follows prosperity, America rose. A new nation built on the oldest principles, tested in fire, and sent forth to carry the torch further.
Again and again, Western Civilization fought back invaders, sometimes with a margin so slim that it is impossible to explain how the West survived except by the hand of Divine Providence. The Battle of Tours in 732 stopped the advance of Islamic forces deep into Europe at a moment when nothing else seemed able to stand in their way. The Siege of Vienna in 1683 saw the city on the brink, the Ottoman host at the gates, until relief came in one of history’s great charges.
These were near-run things.
One different decision, one day of worse weather, one failure of nerve, and the map of the world changes forever.
But Western Civilization returned.
It always returned.
Western Civilization, however, didn’t fall from the sky. It came from things that worked, and they worked because they were True, Beautiful, and Good. And also because long years of struggle and effort revealed them. Greek philosophy asked hard questions about reality and virtue. Roman engineering and administration turned those questions into roads, aqueducts, and systems that lasted centuries. Christian faith added the conviction that every soul matters and that justice ultimately comes from a higher order than any king or mob.
These roots produced the scientific method, the rule of law that protects the weak from the strong, the family that raises the next generation with purpose, and the drive to explore and build that took men to every corner of the globe and then when we’d seen the entire globe, Western Civilization went beyond it.
When these principles are honored, societies flourish. Families stay intact and children grow up rooted. Leaders who see themselves as servants rather than masters earn loyalty instead of resentment. Merit opens doors for the capable regardless of birth. Nations with a clear sense of “us” can absorb newcomers on their own terms instead of dissolving into competing tribes.
The West did not become wealthy and powerful by accident or by exploitation. It became so because it aligned more closely than any other civilization with reality itself.
The challenges of our time are real. We see the forgetting, the dilution, the turning away from the hard work of maintaining what our ancestors built. We see institutions captured by those who view the common good of the nation as an obstacle rather than the goal. We see the slow erosion of the family, the substitution of feelings for truth, the replacement of merit with managed outcomes.
These are not new. Again and again, the same test.
Yet the pattern holds.
When the center seems to be giving way, something in the Western soul stirs. People rediscover the old books, the old stories, the old virtues. They build families again. They demand leaders who serve rather than rule. They remember that a nation is not a hotel or a corporation; it is a home for a particular people.
They choose excellence over ease. They choose truth over comfort. And bit by bit, the tide turns.
This is the record of two and a half thousand years. Every time the West has seemed spent, it has drawn on these same sources and risen stronger. The principles are not fragile. They are battle-tested.
They have survived barbarian invasions, plagues, internal tyrannies, and ideological madness. They will survive whatever is thrown at them now.
As long as we work for what is True, Beautiful, and Good, Western Civilization will not die. We carry it in our hearts, in our homes, in the way we raise our children, in the standards we set for ourselves and for those who lead us. We carry it when we choose the family as the irreplaceable center of human life, when we insist that a nation belongs first to its own people.
These choices are acts of fidelity.
And they are enough.
We will win.
I am certain.
I’m not promising the path that it will take, because I don’t know. The road may be longer and harder than we would like. There may be more losses before the turn. But the destination is not in doubt for those who hold fast.
This is not done.
This is not over.
Here we stand.
Inspiring but glosses over the rivers of blood and skulls that those victories over chaos like Islam involved.
Vlad was basically abandoned by the Christian Nations he chooses to defend so savagely that even today “the Impaler” brings memories. Seems the softer nations sought to pay off Islam, like that ever worked. See Danegeld for details.
A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within….for the traitor appears not to be a traitor…he rots the soul of a nation…he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
None of it will be easy. It never was, never will be.
Hope you do not mind. Sent that to my children
Hope they enjoyed! Cheers!
Well said, John. So even if it is over for America, and we become more like Great Britain, it’s still not the end. We come from good stock…Greek and Roman ideas. Something will rise from our fall. I have never thought about it that way. Thanks again.
It’s keeping the fire alive. We won’t let it go out.
Yes, we have deep roots, but you forget that when Rome fell, we had 1000 years of Medieval Lords and Serfs. At the time, the Muslims were just beginning, but by the time of the Renaissance, Islam had spread and twice nearly took Europe.
Now Islam is not only taking Europe, it is making great strides in the rest of the Western world, including the USA.
Who is available to step up if/when we fall? Or, how do we overcome Islam and come back once we’ve been conquered? Lands taken by Islam before 1000 AD are still Muslim, except for Spain, but Spain is becoming Muslim again. We have invited the enemy inside the gate, and still don’t call him enemy, though all the signs are there to see.
I don’t see a path forward that allows for the next phase of Western Civ.
RayK
Not just Islam. Per Grok, the fastest increasing religions by state – Islam in Kentucky and Nebraska; Judaism in Tennessee and South Carolina. https://x.com/1776General_/status/2075548053726003308
We have been invaded for decades and the US is only about 58% ‘white’ – which includes 2% Jews, 2% Arabs, various Iranians, and those subcons and mestizos who call themselves ‘white.’ Those of European descent are perhaps 50%. Children 0-4 born in Europe and the US are 4% of the world’s total. Half of those (at least) are nonwhite. The Whites are deracinated; taught to hate their heritage. Christianity is being abandoned; the nuclear family has been shattered. Our history is being rewritten day by day, book by book, movie by movie. And there are already 2 generations that have been marinated in the woke slop.
Yes, there is always hope, but we no longer have those who will save and copy the works of our heritage. No one cares about the facts if they contradict what Hollywood portrays. Besides, race is a social construct, and Judaism was foundational to Western Civ – just ask your average 12 year old – who is unlikely to be White.
Churches are burning in Canada and France. Churches in England have been turned into mosques. The museums have all been turned – Smithsonian had nothing but antiwhite exhibits the last time I was in DC in 2007. The Mohammedans in Europe will destroy the monuments and sculptures and paintings; the noggers and mestizos will do it here. The subcons have been busy building their temples to Elephant gods in the US, using thousands of imported subcon laborers.
Yes, there is always hope, but the hour is late, the faithful are few, the people are demoralized and scattered.
John Wilder’s essay is a lovely paean to Western Civilization and hope; I’m sorry I cannot agree and read it more as a eulogy.
I’m think we both hope you’re wrong.
Yet many of the serfs had a fine life, since there were rules. There is a way forward, but it might be invisible to us now.
Well said,you buoy my hope for us and indeed the rest of the world.
Thank you!
Well said save pronouns we don’t win He does…and always has. The one and only King is Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
Thank you for reminding us of the stock we come from. A badly needed white pill in a world filled with despair and apparent defeat. I and those I trust have built a community network with will not go gently into that good night.
I’m losing track of all these different colored pills so I looked them up:
White pill–hopeful optimism
Black pill– fatalism and despair
red pill — harsh truth over blissful ignorance
blue pill — maintain comfortable illusion; also for sexual pleasure (not to exceed 4 hrs)
purple pill– treats acid reflux
pink pill –treats hypoactive sexual desire disorder
orange pill –symbolizes a dedication to Bitcoin
yellow pill—sees a nuanced approach between red pilling and blue pilling
green pill –spiritual awakening
rainbow pill–often used to refer to fentanyl because it is pressed into different colors (I figured it was some sort of gay thing)
It’s amazing how the Matrix meme really took off….
Hahahaha!
Amen!
The late Robert D. Raiford, who provided snarky commentary on the old John Boy and Billy Radio Show stated this comment at least once a week:
“We should have picked our own cotton.” Food for thought.
He was not wrong.
Nothing GOOD, meaning “bettering the world” has ever originated or been invented by the Moslem nations. Yes, there are occasionally very smart Moslems who find their way to the Free World of the West where their talents can make a difference. That is because the capitalist system, for all its faults, is the only system where individuals can achieve greatness through thought, work, perseverance and the incentives that free markets provide entrepreneurs !
Moslems cannot and will never leave their Seventh Century mindset. Advanced Moslem states, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi have achieved modern life because they have $$$$€€€€££££ and spent it wisely on Western inventiveness and have adopted a form of capitalism. Their beliefs of Moslem prohibitions is muted and diminished so they can enjoy the fruits of their great wealth.
As these modern Moslem states “Westernize”, the tenets of Moslem beliefs get subdued, women become educated and fashion conscious (but not outwardly in public) and their birthrates fall significantly. Plus, they see and interact with Westerners and drift from their harsh Moslem death cult beliefs.
However, in spite of the advances I listed, they still hold to death cult beliefs such as the need to conquer by force, by lies or guile ALL INFIDELS.
Thus, I have it as my fixed opinion that World War Three will be fought to determine which peoples and nations shall BE FREE TO NOT BE FORCED TO BECOME MOSLEM ! !
173vv-
They did invent the numerical concept of zero. Fittingly.
Un, actually… while a pseudo-zero existed in Babylonian and Mayan cultures, zero as a number is usually credited to Brahmagupta, an Indian who published a key math book in 638 CE. The Muslim Al-Khwarizmi adopted this Indian number system which included zero two hundred years later when he published his own key book Al-Jabar in the early 800s, which started the branch of mathematics known today as algebra. So technically Islamic scholars didn’t invent zero, it was in fact “cultural appropriation”. However, the Islamic Arabs did make many key other discoveries in math and science over the next few centuries and crucially preserved the knowledge of the ancient Greeks by translating it to Arabic just as they had done for Indian texts.. But by the 1300s the Islamic Golden Age was over as their schools shifted their focus to strictly religious concerns rather than wide-ranging secular studies. Study of the ancient Islamic texts (including the Greek foundation of “Western Civ”) then continued in Europe by Europeans as these texts were translated into Latin, recovering the ancient Greek knowledge that ultimately contributed to the passing of the Dark Ages and eventually the Renaissance.
Yes, there is certainly a critical tension between current Islam and Western Civ today. But it wasn’t always that way and the ultimate fate of Western Civ’s early academic heritage was in Arabic hands for centuries after the fall of Rome. Gotta give credit where credit is due. History is a long and winding road with many surprising twists and turns.
https://share.google/aimode/8GaUCVregN2vocwo9
Muslim scholars preserved early Western works from destruction by other Muslims.
The reason Western Civ’s “early academic heritage was in Arabic hands” was because Europeans had no access to many of the earliest Greek texts after the fall of Rome – the sole copies were in Europe. Islam was not responsible for that heritage, nor did it strengthen or further it. You give credit where it is not due.
Islam as a religion is not redemptive and will always hold them back.
I remind you of the great wisdom of Woody Allen: 80% (often misquoted as 90%) of success is just showing up. North Americans and Europeans make up “only” around a billion people out of the eight billion on this planet – only around 12% of Earth’s total inhabitants – and “our” birthrate has crashed since The Pill was introduced in 1960. At that time, the average NA woman had 3.6 kids compared to the average European woman’s 2.6. Comparable numbers today are 1.6 and 1.4 respectively, well below the 2.1 required for a stable population. Meanwhile, 85% of global births are occurring in Asia and Africa.
The most severe problem Western Civ faces is just having a family-oriented cohort of people willing to carry the torch forward.
Mormons and Amish seem to have it figured out . . .
Well, bravo.
Thank you, Adam!
Goin By the Book Johnny Cash
Yup.
“Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
Exactly.
Remember hey ho Western Civ has got to go chants on Marxist EDU campuses?
Here we stand.
Jesus binge last night on Tube, adblocker makes it watchable again.
Hymie owns deicide for all time if you have any doubts about the antichrist identity.
Yeah, the ads are getting crazy.
Carlos the Jackal said only Muslims and communists working together could destroy America.
And here they are.
I sincerely appreciate your blog. Your writing is quite meta and while I appreciate your gallows humor, I especially appreciate when the sincere and direct messages come out. I believe you are doing a great deal of good with your blog. I think your “Here We Stand” post was especially powerful. Thank you.
Thank you! When I write, I write the post first, and then add the jokes and memes, unless I like the post very much.
Thank you again.