Western civilization is falling. Like Roman civilization before it. And Greek civilization before that. There are many reasons. It may still take decades or even centuries, but as with Babylon, the handwriting is on the wall. (And since events seem to be faster, overall, today due to technology and population, we may not have all that long.)

What does that mean? Even if the nukes are launched and dropped, the world and the human race will not disappear. There will be something replacing western civilization. Sooner or later – but unlikely to be a centuries-long period of darkness and horror, as the science fiction writers commonly portray. Not to say it won’t be nasty for a good while, but finally, something else will develop.

Before we look at a replacement, though, we need to ask a simple question. Why is western civilization falling?

Why?  Despite its many, many failings, western civilization is built on a foundation of liberty: human liberty.

More liberty means less government, and less government means less misery, servility, hypocrisy, denial, waffling, mendacity, degeneracy, squalidness, even brutality and crudity. We see that throughout human history.

Less government means less government intervention, less government spending, less government draining of resources, and less government employment. And less waste and destruction. More liberty means less government.

The reverse is, of course, true as well.

And that is what is happening now. We are reversing that, by getting more and more government.

More government means less liberty. Less liberty means more misery and more of all of the rest of the trials and tribulations humans face. More government means more intervention, more of government as a parasite extracting resources, more spending and more waste and more employment by government.

Most government employees are not producing goods or services which people what to buy and have: otherwise they would not need to steal money (tax) to do these things. In the same way, money stolen and spent by government is used inefficiently.  Even though roads and such get built, the overhead costs are astronomical, because the parasites demand their pound of flesh. And much of what is produced by and for government is destroyed: wasted. Americans let government spend trillions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, destroying still more resources: creating waste.  We are now doing it with billions in Ukraine: tomorrow we may see it in Russia, Poland, and Belarus.

But we see the same thing at home in the Fifty States. Government uses much of the money it takes from businesses and people who own and work in those businesses to pay for the means of shoving us into a box, taking away the very liberty they supposedly are sworn to protect. They push harder and harder to do the very opposite of what too many Americans still believe is the purpose of government. It is often, if not usually, worse in other western nations, in Europe, in the Pacific, and elsewhere.

What can prevent that collapse, that fall? Perhaps nothing – though most of us (at least those who are rational and have a strong faith) work to keep that from happening. At the moment, we are failing.

So we need to consider what will replace western civilization, just as western civilization replaced Roman civilization. And many others around the globe. It is a well-established cycle. And despite claims to the contrary, we have not abolished history.

We need to recognize and identify and make our ambition to establish a replacement that is better: with more freedom, not less. With more liberty and justice for all. Not tyranny, no matter what it is called.

The replacement requires knowledge, determination, and… though many may disagree, faith. Especially if we want that replacement to be what humans – all humans, and not some self-anointed elite – should have and need. The choice is ours, and the generations after us. Are we teaching each other to be free people or slaves?