An Australian Reckoning is a Coming
There were three excellent, longer pieces in the Wall Street Journal in the last week or so. None of them were directly about Australia but all have relevance to Australians
About Douglas Murray and the decline of the west.
About Germany and the decline of Europe.
By Niall Ferguson and the potential for the decline of the US.
I just read these 3 pieces, back to back, and must declare I am left even more concerned and depressed. If you have access to the WSJ, you should read all 3.
But … where to start, where to start. An apologies to those who will be cut off by the paywall, but I have some very generous subscribers to whom I feel an obligation to return some value.
On Douglas Murray, in his “The War on the West” book, published in 2022 (great read BTW), Murray offers:
an account of the attack on “all the roots of the Western tradition and against everything good that the Western tradition has produced.” He laments that “the side of democracy, reason, rights and universal principles” has prematurely surrendered to its cultural enemies on the postcolonial and race-obsessed left.
There is much in the piece, but this is the bit that I will remember this avidly:
Mr. Murray stumbled recently on some notes he’d made after lunch with Henry Kissinger. He can’t remember when it was, but Kissinger had just read “The Strange Death of Europe” and had remarked to Mr. Murray: “It’s not clear to me that the country that dislikes its past has any future.”
The emphasis is mine and the point is worth repeating:
It’s not clear to me that the country that dislikes its past has any future.
Our parliaments, our schools, our universities are full of people who dislike Australia’s past and they perpetuate this self loathing through to the next generation. Look at the professional protesters and what they are protesting. Look at the Australian Greens and what they are perpetuating. Dare one even mention the Senator from Victoria who was previously a member of the Greens.
Consider the state of Australia’s “multi-culturalism”. Despite the rhetoric, cultures don’t really co-exist unless there are walls or borders. Either the dominant one takes over or there is some sort of mutation where bits combine.
The fundamental problem with multiculturalism is that is starts from the proposition that all cultures are equal and worthy. Wrong. Australians have been warned a long time about this but are now seeing the results of cultural surrender.
As to Germany. Oh the parallels, the parallels.