I, like most of my fellow Hillsdale students, grew up hearing about Europe’s — and the Left’s — deep-seated hatred of capitalism, the right to bear arms, and everything else. When I was a kid I could never completely understand the reasons for this hatred. Now that I am studying abroad, and have had the opportunity to meet countless Europeans and Israelis, the reason for this is as clear as day.
Europe does not hate us because of our capitalism, or our army, or anything else that we as Americans tend to be so proud of. Europe hates the very thing that makes America America: the American spirit. The spirit of self-reliance, pride, and strength. It is this spirit that makes us say “give us guns and let us protect ourselves,” or “if you want something, you have to take it.” What makes Europe hate us, and what makes them so afraid of us also, is our fight, our rugged determination, and our refusal to ever give up.
There is a major problem in the world. Western civilization as we know it may be coming to an end. America may have very well have hit its zenith, and now is approaching a painful fall. This does not mean that America will cease to be a country. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly didn’t fall in one either.
Europe, however, is currently falling and it has been for a while now. Russia is running wild, the Middle East is in flames, and all of Europe’s old attempts at cultural domination are turning against them. The world is shrinking; so too, Western control. The Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman values upon which the entire Western heritage is built are disappearing as other cultures test their might.
European nations realize that their glory days are over, that their ancient empires are gone. Europe can no longer exert dominance the way it once did. The only way they see now to postpone the inevitable is to give the people what they most want: bread and circuses, so to speak. This is why Europe has given into socialism. Not because socialism is the almighty moral lifestyle it passes itself off as, but because it serves as a stalling tactic, a way to make the populace ignore the real problems. As long as the population is fed and entertained, it will never realize the truth. After all, why would anyone question a system of government that spoon-feeds them?
The western world is falling apart, yet America clings to hope for survival. This is why the rest of the first world now hates us. Our struggle, our continued battle against receding into the dark, only serves as a reminder to Europe. They seek so desperately to hide their heads in the sand and ignore the world around them. They now hate any and everyone who tells them the truth, and the number one teller of truths right now is us.
The civilized world hopes to pacify militant Islam, just as the Romans hoped to do with the barbarians. They seek to civilize lunatics like Kim Jong Un and the Mullahs of Iran. But they hope to do this while allowing them to keep their cultures and customs that put them at odds with the West to begin with.
Western Europe tries so hard to make it seem like America has gone crazy. We are not the ones that have lost our minds. We are one of the few that are still fighting. America sits on the ledge, trying to make up her mind whether she should join her European brothers in a fantasy world or if she should continue fighting for what she believes, without any assurance that this is a battle she can possibly win.
The stakes are higher than they have ever been. We can no longer give in, we can no longer walk the line between Europe and reality. America has problems, but underneath all of the filth and corruption the American people still keep the fire burning that made this country so great in the first place. Even if our government were to fall, and Western civilization crumble, our spirit must fight on. We as Americans must take a stand, not just for capitalism or for our guns, but for the American Spirit.
Note: The online version has been revised. This text is slightly different from the original editorial, which appeared in the March 31, 2016 edition of the Hillsdale Collegian.