Reflections on the Core Values of Western Civilization
When you log in to your favourite news website – or opening a newspaper, the old fashioned way – you are greeted by an un-ending stream of news about wars and other violent conflicts abroad as well as angry divisions and political confrontations at home. What happened? World peace has not unfolded as we had expected.
After the Soviet Union collapsed and Francis Fukuyama famously declared the End of History, it seemed evident that the West, the guys in the white hats, had prevailed. Alas, we all know that this is not the way it worked out. Democracy as we know it in the West did not march triumphantly around the word. Instead, we are faced today with a depressingly long list of violent conflicts with no signs of abatement.
The National Post recently published a letter from Kaslo, B.C. which reads in part as follows:<Nov 30 may be one of the most significant turning points in human history. It marks the opening to the Paris summit on climate change …….. Today we are close to the deadline proposed so many years ago. 2020, the year of no return, the year when stabilization targets must be met. The data show, if no action is taken, our trajectory will lead to a 6C increase in global temperatures by 2100 ……. But there is still time ….. to avert the potentially catastrophic tipping point…>’
A cris de ceur from the grassroots. This letter writer should, however, feel reassured to know that the campaign to head off climate change at the pass counts among its supporters none other than President Obama, the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s most powerful nation.
