The dominant narrative on the decline of Western Civilization – the first decline, I should say, rather than an impending second – is that the barbarian hordes of Central Europe swept through the dissipated ranks of the Roman legions plunging classical antiquity into a dark era of population collapse, economic decline and obscurantist superstition. [...]
Originally published on July 15th, 2009
Unfortunately the link seems to be broken about the alternate thesis.
But I believe one of the tenets of radical Islam is that Islam was a vibrant and scientific society, centered around Damascus, and it was the evil west that destroyed this.
I would urge everyone to read this book – The Looming Tower –
http://www.lawrencewright.com/books.html
He through many interviews and research gives you a tree showing how al Queda came to be – starting with a radical Egyptian who came to this believe – while a student in of all places, Greeley CO in the late 40s.
That there are exhibits of great beauty and technical complexity in the British Museum that emanate from the Middle East and are around 5,000 years old, is a sobering thought when one is trying to get one’s head around this whole fascinating concept of human history, human degeneration and human geography.
My father has said that other than electricity, we haven’t changed -
Nothing new under the sun…