The American administration has been expressing concern lately about the “decline” of Western civilization. The villain is Europe. Chief purveyor of this notion is Vice President J.D. Vance who has been particularly hostile to the continent. A recent National Security Strategy document argued that Europe is on the brink of “civilizational erasure” and NATO members might become “majority non-European.”
The criticism is puzzling. In what way, exactly, is Europe supposed to be declining? Which of Western civilization’s contributions to humanity, and there are indeed many uniquely fine ones, are being degraded?
Consider the Enlightenment, which founded the principles that shape our democracies, such as the right to govern ourselves and our equal rights as citizens. This should be foremost in the minds of Americans as their country is a child of the Enlightenment.
Is Europe adrift from these principles? Hardly. More Europeans live under democratic rule today than at any time in their history, and human rights have never been more honoured on the continent. Far from decline, Western Europe is at a pinnacle of Enlightenment virtue.
After the Enlightenment, I would suggest Western civilization’s most important and indeed unique contribution was the great burst of science starting with the Scientific Revolution of the 16th century and continuing up to today. I fail to see any decline here either.
For example, a host of European countries have formed CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. The lab runs the the large hadron collider, a powerful particle accelerator that represents the cutting edge in particle physics. In southern In France, a host of nations are collaborating on ITER, a project to build the world’s largest magnetic fusion device, designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale, carbon-free source of energy. Not much decline to be seen in science.
How Europe is maintaining Western civilization’s contributions to arts and letters I won’t comment on as this is a field beyond my limited tastes. But overall, the continent is doing very nicely indeed.
So I ask again, what are these Americans complaining about? The answer of course is immigration. It’s always immigration with these guys. “Civilizational erasure” means a decline not in Western civilization but in a relative decline of white Christians. It’s all about bigotry, not civilization. It isn’t even about immigration in itself, but rather about immigrating too many of the wrong kind of people.
Europe’s population is changing. There is indeed a greater variety of colour and religion. But this is just change, neither decline nor incline, just change. Black and brown people are as good Europeans as white people, just as black and brown people are as good Americans as white people or, for that matter, as good Canadians. And Hindus and Muslims are as good Europeans as Christians. But not, apparently, in the eyes of this American administration. Europeans, it seems, are just not bigoted enough.
As for the United States itself, under Trump it is hardly upholding the pillars of Western civilization. His administration has disdained its own Enlightenment-advised Constitution, corrupted government departments, and seriously undermined the country’s institutions including the sciences and education. It criticizes Europe even as it fouls its own nest.
Some European countries have mismanaged immigration, nonetheless they need the workers, and a greater variety of people, particularly young people, may just invigorate the continent. And Western civilization.