Western Civilization first emerged as an idea in Ancient Greece, enacted in the form of the Ancient Greek empire. It continued in the Roman empire, which built upon what the Greeks had started. The Greeks began the undertaking of urbanisation, and were committed to learning, much of which came to be through philosophy and the arts. The Romans essentially encapsulated what the Greeks had begun into a system of society, a system of being, which then began to expand across Europe.
Western Civilization has existed in some form or another for centuries. The philosophy that has shaped Western society, one that centralises on reason and logic within the individual, and the aesthetic, again one which is characterised by logic, dates back to the Greek and Roman empires. While these empires eventually fell, both demonstrated great strength, lasting for over 1000 years.
Typically, Western society has been defined by several key characteristics – individualism, rationalism, and democracy. While these have taken on different shapes in the various eras and nations which have formed over the centuries since its inception, Western Civilization has consistently been reliable – it has kept society in a state whereby those who exist within it are able to flourish.
It would be easy to question how this has been possible when the entire concept of individualism connotes the idea that every man is only concerned with his own being, and thus his own good, rather than the good of those around him. One could argue that in committing to his own good and working to ensure it, a man would likely also be working for the good of society – thus, the good of those around him.
But there is another key influence that has no doubt contributed to deterring the individualism characteristic of Western Civilization from becoming too self-serving. Christianity has been highly influential in giving life to the soul of Western Civilization. Christian morality is the beating heart of Western schools of ethics. Without such morality, society would have likely just descended into chaos whereby each man could justify wreaking evil against another for the sake of protecting their own individuality.
Christianity has always played a pivotal role in the proliferation of Western Civilization. Since the inception of this form of society, this way of being, the Christian religion has been there as a guiding light, ushering it into every age. It is worth noting that after the Roman Empire fell in around 476 AD, Christianity survived and eventually re-asserted influence over the West, with many looking to the Pope as a leader. The great Saint, Pope Gregory the Great, was an indomitable leader, establishing a political influence greater than that of any emperor that swept the West. The Catholic Church became one of the great powers of influence in the Western world, exerting both social and political influence.
To provide a full historical account of Western Civilization here would be far too excessive for this article. Such a history could, and already has, filled many a book. What has been highlighted of the centrality and influence of Christianity and the Catholic Church serves to provide context as to its imperative significance in ensuring the continuity of Western Civilization.
See, now, after centuries of being a dominant force for good, Western Civilization stands on the brink of collapse. The Western world has lost its momentum. Everything that is good, everything that has kept society functioning well for so long, has been perverted. It’s all caving in on itself. The superpowers of the Western world, those nations that were once so strong, a bulwark against the forces of evil – those who would seek to consolidate power and expand their reach beyond their own borders – have become so pathetically weak. They no longer induce fear in their opponents – they just sit there, meekly pursuing the most inane ideas, while their opponents grow stronger, preparing themselves for a takeover (which, at this point, probably won’t even be hostile). There is nothing super or powerful about them. They are nothing more than a tragic joke.
Look to the United States. Look to that once great nation that kept the forces of Communist nations at bay. That once respectable nation that was a brilliant and powerful ally. Look at them now. While China trains its military forces with rigour, the United States is more concerned with training its military forces in adhering to inclusivity, DEI regulations, and gender identity observances that have been constructed by a generation that has strayed far from Western ideals. If China invaded the US today, they would probably just come face-to-face with a bunch of soldiers who would scream at their military for ‘misgendering’ them.
The problem runs throughout the Western world. Europe, the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand – everywhere you look in the West the same perversions of the ideas and culture that has built Western Civilization and ensured its dominance for so long have taken hold. And while it may seem we have lost touch with reality, while it may seem like there is just a lack of common sense, while it may seem that we have forgotten our roots, that we have lost touch with the core elements of the very idea of Western Civilization conceived all those centuries ago in the agoras of Ancient Greece, in the temples of Ancient Rome, there is, I think, a greater explanation at hand for the now seemingly inevitable collapse of Western Civilization, an explanation in which lies the solution for the fall.
At its roots, the disasters that have wreaked havoc on the West are not physical, but ideological. They demonstrate a clear perversion of the good, a turning away from the virtues and morals that allow individuals to flourish and thus society to thrive.
The Western world has lost touch with Christianity. And only through Christianity can it be truly revived.
We as human persons have really managed to go out of our way to ruin everything that is good, everything that makes us human. And just to preface this breakdown of the mess we have created; this does not necessarily pertain to all of humanity. There are clearly select ideologies that have perverted what has sustained the Western world for so long, and those ideologies, steeped in the minds of the men who practice and pursue them and who will seemingly defend with all their might the absurdities they have brought into existence, have wreaked disastrous consequences upon the Western world.
What is even more problematic is just how solidified these ideas have become in societal institutions – universities, the education system at large, political systems, even, to some extent, the Church – all the institutions that shape society and every human person who exists within it. The education systems are, of course, the most critical, given the ideas presented within the course of an individual’s education, a time when they are growing and vulnerable, when they are absorbing information and often taking it on as truth – which is an unfortunate reality that occurs given they do not know any better and are not mature enough to discern what is actually good on a more complex level.
This is not to say that learning other schools of thought is an overtly bad thing. It is necessary for us to understand these ideas and ways of thinking so we can better critique them and push back against the damaging ideologies that emerge from them. But this is better done at an age whereby an individual can actually understand these ideas in their complexities and perceive the problems with them.
The impact such ideologies have is evident in the generation of students that we are presented with almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century. Students have been swept up by identity politics – they are more concerned with coddling gender preferences and ensuring people are not offended than pursuing good. We live in a world where people cannot even decide what their gender is. One day they are male, the next they have decided to switch to female, and then the next they are neither. It is a symptom of a much greater disease that has infected the Western world.
The next generation of teachers is going to be more concerned with politicising everything and indoctrinating children with dangerous ideologies than something that resembles a proper education. They do not actually care about learning and deepening their own knowledge. They just do what they must to attain the necessary qualifications to teach.
What is more, many who are looking to teach in Catholic schools are only taking the necessary subjects for the purpose of attaining a certificate to grant them that privilege. They do not actually care about deepening their own understanding of the faith – which really should be at the heart of wanting to teach at a Catholic school. And this begins another vicious cycle in which students who are taught religious education are not provided with good teaching that will allow them to better understand and hopefully deepen their own faith, while also developing a solid understanding of Christian morality and the virtues which allow us as human persons to live a truly good life.
Instead, we will see another generation of individuals who have broken moral compasses. It is already evident in current generations who began the cycle. That is not to say that all individuals will be affected. Those who are raised well by their own families, who have the necessary upbringing to withstand the vices and wiles of the education system and the wolves that lie waiting within, will no doubt be the only hope for the Western world.
The true problem, then, lies not merely in the systems and institutions themselves, but in the people that operate within them. And at the heart of it all is the battle that rages within each one of us, right within our beating hearts, between good and evil. It is a battle that has been taking place since the very beginning of human existence. From the Christian perspective, it has been raging on even before this, since the creation of the angels and the rebellion that took place in the Heavens following the revelation to the angels of the plan for humanity. Ever since Lucifer and the angels who rebelled with him were defeated by the Archangel Michael and his battalion and cast out of Heaven, the devil has been working in every way he can to bring as many souls as he can into the perpetual, never-ending misery of Hell.
This is why, from the very first moment human persons were created, the devil was scheming to draw them away from God. We know from the Fall of humanity that he was successful in doing that – at least, momentarily. For while humanity was in its nature fallen, it has now been redeemed. But while Christ may have redeemed our fallen nature, that concupiscence and the battle against temptation has not just magically evaporated. Each one of us still must choose between good and evil in all that we do, in every decision we make.
The devil is waiting for us to fall every single moment of every single day. He has his eyes on every single one of us. Each day, he presents us with suggestions, temptations, to draw us away from God. And while we may be able to resist such temptations, we are not perfect. There are times where we fall. It is part of who we are as human persons. The difference is that, for those of us who actually understand this spiritual element to the world, we understand the necessity to seek forgiveness for the wrong we have done, for the sins we have committed.
This is unfortunately not the case for all those who do not believe. Instead, they continue to allow the evil to consume them – to the point that they begin to promote evil ideas and bring others into their sin. This effect is what has contributed largely to the approaching collapse of Western Civilization.
People no longer respect the human body. They are consumed by vices. They have no respect for human life. They use each other. And they just support whatever will aid in their own personal gain. They want the individualism but none of the morality that prevents it from becoming so self-serving.
Technology, an innovation that was likely created to aid the human race in many different ways, has become a means by which humanity is being erased. It has become a portal by which individuals can access toxic and inhumane ideas and ideologies online, by which people can become radicalised. The web is so open and social media platforms are so poorly regulated that harmful things like pornography and what is termed ‘soft porn’ are now blatantly visible in so many places online. It’s horrifying to think that these kinds of things are accessible to anyone, but that horror is compounded when we consider that nowadays some parents will just thrust an iPad or their phone into their child’s hands to keep them quiet and happy. But that won’t bring the child true happiness, because it is simply a means to an end. It will only instil a dependency on technology in the child; they will become so absorbed by it that they will never truly appreciate the world around them. They will never appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. They will never be able to just live in the moment and appreciate the little things, things like being with people, enjoying their company. Instead, their faces will be glued to their screens.
This is the problem with technology. It dehumanises us. It is marketed as something that can keep us connected – and yet, ironically, it disconnects us from reality. It distracts us from the people around us. It is marketed as something that is supposed to improve efficiency and productivity – and yet again, ironically, it gets in the way of these very qualities. We become so consumed by useless interactions online (think of all those arguments people have on social media platforms) and scroll so much that we end up wasting hours of our time that could have been invested in things of far greater importance, or at least something that would have been of greater benefit. We could be consolidating knowledge, honing a skill, writing a masterpiece, or even building friendships and relationships. Instead of appreciating the beauty of life, we lose ourselves to a screen.
The pornography issue highlights another catastrophe – people are so out-of-touch with morality that they will sexualise others or allow themselves to be sexualised for personal gain. They are selling themselves. They have allowed themselves to become a commodity. And this is one of the root issues of the impending collapse – the commodification of the human person. Humans are no longer viewed as people. They are viewed as objects, commodities, clients, part of a market, nothing more than a collective which must be sold to or dealt with in some way. We are all just cogs in a machine.
Western Civilization may be on the brink of collapse. But there is a chance we can prevent this from occurring if we return to the Christian roots of the West and the ways of thinking that established a way of being that has transcended centuries. At the heart of this lies a return to the morals and virtues that lend themselves to creating a society in which everyone is seen as a human person with innate dignity, where individuals can flourish and thrive without impinging on the dignity of another person.
But this is going to take work. It is not going to be an easy venture. It will take great strength, great perseverance. It is clear that, as it stands, individuals in the Western world have become so radicalised by certain harmful ideologies and so disconnected from Christian virtues and morality. They have created for themselves false and deceitful idols out of celebrities and technology. They continue to persist in this idolatry. And they all think that what they are doing, the ideas they are promoting – ideas that are directly opposed to morality, to virtue, and to good itself – are good.
To be quite blunt, while the solution to the collapse of Western Civilization is a revival of Christianity, this may not come to pass in time to save the West. The collapse may very well take place before this can be achieved.
And so, this brings us back to the question at hand – what happens if Western Civilization falls?
It is a question to which the answer is not completely certain, but to which likely answers can be posited.
Several authors have explored through literature the possibilities of a world that appears to be devoid of Western ideals. Orwell’s 1984 highlighted what might occur if a society became entirely collectivist, whereby one would have to lose their own individualism in order to gain some perverse sense of ‘freedom.’ In such a place, no-one is able to truly think for themselves, to possess a free thought. A world in which everyone thinks the same, in which every individual is just part of a collective machine, is not at all ideal.
In a similar yet somewhat alternative vein, Huxley’s Brave New World presents a future in which the world has become so consumed by technology that it practically governs how people live. Although, in such a world, people are not really people. They have become so devoid of humanity to the point that they no longer have to experience certain emotions and feelings, nor the ups and downs of human life, but can simply escape from any problems through the confected ‘pleasures’ of technology.
While both of these worlds are works of fiction, they each possess ideas and ways of being that are not too far-fetched. Neither are worlds any reasonable human person would want to inhabit.
What is more likely, however, is that, if the collapse of Western Civilization does come to pass, another dominant power will step in and take over, consolidating even greater power than they already possess. Their philosophy, their way of thinking, however wrong, inhumane, or even catastrophic it may be, will become the common, acceptable way of thinking. Other beliefs may even be outlawed.
There is no guarantee that this can be prevented – at least, not with the shape the Western world is currently in. But there is one final method that can be proposed. Christianity is a certain antidote to the disease ravaging eating away at the heart of Western Civilization. The issue at hand is one of time – something that seems to constantly be running out. The revival of Christianity in the West is going to take time. And so, it is imperative to find a way of buying time. The solution to this may just lie in the very concept that was just presented as a method of creating a subservient, inhuman society – empire building.
Such empire building could take place across the Western world, most prominently in the United States. In fact, such a method, if undertaken well with the right values and philosophy at heart, could revive the US as a global superpower. There is, of course, some risk in that, if the controlling power was to possess harmful ideas or a dangerous ideology, or if they were to become corrupted in some way, this could have a flow on effect to the empire at large. But, if it were to occur in a manner that led to the revival of the values that lie at the very heart of Western Civilization itself, it could be the very thing that forestalls its collapse.
Just as Western Civilization was conceived in an age of empires, it may be renewed in the same.
JJ’s Outlook 