- Civilizations rise or fall on the basis
of the beliefs of the ruling class. Nothing mysterious about that. Belief
always precedes action. The success or failure of an action depends most
often on whether the belief on which it is based is true or false.
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- People, for example, who try to beat
a train do so in the belief that they can get across the tracks before
the train arrives. If their belief is correct, they live; if it is incorrect,
they die. And so it is with nation-states and empires.
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- The ruling class of America, that mix
of political, corporate, academic and financial people who occupy positions
of power (one academic estimates there are only 7,000 such positions in
the public and private sector combined), holds a number of false beliefs.
Unless these beliefs are corrected, the United States is down the tube.
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- So, if we value our future, we would
do well to examine the beliefs that underlie American policy -- domestic,
foreign and economic -- that are pointing us toward disaster, pain, suffering
and general misery.
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- One of these false beliefs is that numbers
don't matter, so therefore immigration can be virtually unlimited. False.
The difference between a prosperous China and a poor China is about 700
million people. Continued population growth will degrade the environment,
the economy and the ability to enjoy life.
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- A second false belief is that diversity
or multiculturalism is good. No, it's not. It is a breeder of perpetual
conflict. There's no nation on Earth with a diverse, multicultural population
that is politically stable, democratic and prosperous.
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- The false belief that diversity and multiculturalism
are good is based, somewhat paradoxically, on another false belief that
there exists a universal man or, as they would say today, a universal person.
This is the belief that human beings are all basically the same and therefore,
with a little social tinkering, can be persuaded to live peacefully and
happily together.
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- This is not so; it never has been so;
and it never will be so. Humans are tribal, and tribes compete for territory
and resources. The more world population increases, the more intense the
competition will become. America is already experiencing an undeclared
race war. It is an interesting commentary on people's ability to delude
themselves that we now think that it is normal to have armed police posted
in public schools. Just 30 years ago that idea would have struck Americans
as absurd.
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- Still another false belief is that unlimited
economic growth is possible. It isn't. Resources are finite. The carrying
capacity of any given piece of ground is limited. If that were not so,
archaeologists wouldn't have anything to do. The world is a graveyard of
once-powerful and prosperous nations and empires. Unequal distribution
of wealth, of resources and of opportunity is, always has been and always
will be a fact of life.
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- European-derived people seem to have
lost the will to survive. Garrett Hardin, the biologist, has said, ``The
politicizing of universalism by Western elites and their legal and social
institutions ... has deluded many European-derived people into believing
that it is immoral to survive as a distinct group. As a result they can
find no reason to resist the Third World flood inundating the West.''
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- I believe that we are now at the point
at which the ruling class will have to be replaced or we will proceed into
the gloomy and dismal future where its false beliefs and bad actions are
taking us.
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- I don't know if Americans will commit
national suicide or decide to resuscitate themselves. It will depend on
how many Americans can stand to look reality in its stern and unfriendly
face.
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