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What is lost when a civilization wearies

Commentariat member Dana got me reading Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. It’s short, lively, and even if it’s not totally satisfying in describing how the Irish did the saving, it’s full of smack-upside-the-head insights.

The best material is on Rome’s collapse. (The first chapter was so persuasive it darned near made me feel sorry for tax collectors.) Before I return the book to the library, I want to post a couple of paragraphs. In the first, Cahill is mostly quoting from Kenneth Clark’s Civilization (spelling Americanized).

What is really lost when a civilization wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible. Again Clark: “Civilization requires a modicum of material prosperity — enough to provide a little leisure. But, far more, it requires confidence — confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one’s own mental powers … Vigor, energy, vitality: all the great civilizations — or civilizing epochs — have had a weight of energy behind them. People sometimes think that civilization consists in fine sensibilities and good conversation and all that. These can be among the agreeable results of civilization, but they are not what makes a civilization, and a society can have these amenities and yet be dead and rigid.”

[…]

We have encountered Roman law already — as a dead letter, promulgated by the emperor and circumvented, first by the powerful, then increasingly by anyone who could get away with it. As the emperor’s laws become weaker, the ceremony surrounding them becomes more baroque. In the last days, the Divine One’s edict is written in gold on purple paper, received with covered hands in the fashion of a priest handling sacred vessels, held aloft for the adoration of the assembled throng, who prostrate themselves before the law — and then ignore it.

(Doesn’t that second paragraph resonate in light of the recent adoration of Emperor Obama during the State of the Union Address?)

Now, I know some members of the Commentariat are going to rush to object that nobody, ever, should “believe” in the state’s laws and of course I agree. But the phrase “to believe in its laws” can also be interpreted to mean to have confidence that a society’s mores and its institutions (governmental and otherwise) will be thoughtful and just. Because, after all, state-imposed laws are only one part (and a much smaller one than most assume) of the larger moral/ethical/social structure that keeps civilization, … well, civilized.

Even the normally faithful and carefully schooled followers of The Divine State have no such confidence today. They know laws and regulations are a con job (and a screw job). They also know they’re not going to get a fair shake from “their” banks, corporations, schools, and social institutions (even though they may not realize how far the state has infiltrated to corrupt nominally “private” organizations).

Now confidence in the philosophy of individual freedom and confidence in the self are going, too. The social-justice pecksniffs who want us to fear to hold our own views aren’t merely annoying. The shriekers who want men to feel guilty for being born male and the race-baiters who demand that Caucasians feel guilty for being born at all aren’t merely angling for political power. The Orwellians who want to bury Thomas Jefferson or the Confederate flag aren’t merely trying to impose contemporary values on the past or their personal values on others. They’re a kind of fifth column bent on the destruction of confidence. And bent on destroying the knowledge of history and the sense of continuity and meaning that helps build confidence in our own thoughts. Above all, they are bent on destruction of the individuality that was the best of our founding principles and is the best in us. Put it another way: they are termites. And termites undermine.

What they aim for is to destroy “confidence in one’s own mental powers.” And that, far more than law or temporary social or religious mores or any one particular interpretation of history, is the civilization builder. And that, millions now aim to tear down.

Of course confidence isn’t always a great thing, either. It’s always been wrong to have confidence in government. That just sets us up for con(fidence) games. Widespread confidence that “America is the freest country in the world” has enabled politicians to steal freedom. And we all know people who have serene confidence in their own abilities and opinions when in fact they’re dead wrong.

A little — or even a lot of — doubt can be a healthy thing for both individuals and societies — when doubt means people posing sincere and necessary questions. When doubt means individuals being urged by others to disbelieve their own minds and accept (or pretend under pressure to accept) someone else’s views — that’s quite a different, and dangerous, matter. Clark and Cahill are right about civilizations. Civilizations are held together by shared ideas and by the educated confidence that those ideas, however flawed they may be in execution, are valuable and worth upholding.

We’ll remain civilized, we little remnant, because we have that. I fear for the weakening civilizations that surround us. What’s left of them, anyhow.

22 Comments

  1. LarryA
    LarryA January 19, 2016 10:09 am

    Amen.

    It’s almost like…

    What are the words?

    “That to secure these (Creator-endowed, individual) rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

  2. Bear
    Bear January 19, 2016 10:22 am

    “What is really lost when a civilization wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible.”

    I think that’s a reversal of cause and effect. The lack of confidence in that social order induces the weariness. Right now, were’ a wealthy country by historical standards, with plenty of leaisure. But just to a drive a couple of miles, I have to check which baroque, arbitrary, and nonsensical laws I have to pretend to comply with. Driver license: check. Auto insurance: check. CCW license: almost check, but only if I don’t go to the wrong places. Business license? Who knows; depends on what trade I mean to practice. Am I in a state whose license the feds will accept? Oh, wait; they keep changing their minds on whether non-REAL ID papers will get me in a fed building or on a plane. Medical insurance: I can keep my doctor until I can’t. FFL? I couldn’t get a license because I didn’t do enough business, but now I’m supposed to get one because that same amount of business is too much… and the law hasn’t even changed.

    Buying a gun from an FFL (who hopefully does the “right” amount of business) requires a government issued ID and I have to declare my race. That’s not racist, but requiring the same ID to vote is racist.

    It is exhausting to keep up with rules in a land where “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” and no one even read the damned thing before passing it anyway.

    Is the guy dressed as woman using the right right restroom, or is (s)he a pervert?

    Businesses can refuse to serve me for exercising a constitutionally-guaranteed right, but can’t refuse a homosexual couple.

    Students too young to drink can demand (and probably get) a name chnge for a building named after a past college president because it’s a microagression.

    In this state, schools that were supposed to teach, practice peer-group promotion to the next grade, and teachers quit now because the districts dare to give them annual evaluations (and expect their students to learn something).

    Idiots can no longer distinguish the unsubtle difference between taking offense and having offense given, and it’s up me to guess what inocuous thing I might utter will be grounds for suing me. In the worst case, I have to hope for a judge appointed by a Republican rather than one appointed by a Democrat. Unless some rightwing whacko took offense, in which case it’s the other way around.

    Model airplanes suddenly require FAA registration, without the law having changed.

    There are at least three live bills in my state legislature to retroactively require training for a CCW license, and none of them actually say what the training requirements are. There’s another bill that would outlaw nearly every rifle in the state and require the GBI to confiscate them all. It’s not likely to pass, but no one can say it won’t.

    HHS is floating a regulation to allow virtually anyone peripherally connected to “health care” to anonymously add people to the NICS prohibited person list.

    I’m tired of arbitrary, ever-changing “rules” that spark no confidence. I didn’t lose that confidence because I got tired.

  3. Claire
    Claire January 19, 2016 10:56 am

    “I’m tired of arbitrary, ever-changing “rules” that spark no confidence. I didn’t lose that confidence because I got tired.”

    Bear, everybody here understands the frustration with the growing tyranny. But nobody (not Cahill, not Clark, and certainly not me) is claiming individuals get tired, then lose confidence in civilization or society or whatever. C & C are talking about weary, worn-out civilizations. And certainly one cause of civilizations wearing out (and wearing down) is outrageous laws and regulations.

  4. A.G.
    A.G. January 19, 2016 11:14 am

    Huh. I’m more than a bit surprised you had not read that book years ago. I remember it being popular enough that it was sold at Wal-Mart back when I worked there in the mid 90’s.

  5. Claire
    Claire January 19, 2016 11:22 am

    What can I say, A.G. I’m slow. And I rarely buy books retail. But yup, it’s absolutely up my alley.

    I already knew that Irish scribes kept literacy alive while Europe fell into darkness (even if the darkness wasn’t quite as deep as we learned in school). I’ve seen the Book of Kells in person — and Skellig Michael, too. I have some books on ancient Irish illuminations. But it was great to get the details about how it all came about, even if I came late to the party. And Cahill’s a fun writer.

  6. Bear
    Bear January 19, 2016 11:34 am

    Claire,

    Clark/Cahill (at least in this excerpt) certainly seem to be saying that confidence depends on vigor. I just hold that vigor depends on some degree of confidence. (OK, I know I’m taking a risk by engaging in this business venture, but at least I know the government won’t retroactively declare me a criminal for doing so.)

    Perhaps my TL;DR screed wasn’t clear. When I spoke of “me” and “I”, was using myself as an example of a member of “civilation”. “Civilization” doesn’t get tired. Civilization is shorthand for an association of individuals with some common interest that allows them to interact and often operate as a group. That common element might be a set of social values, a belief that the emperor knows what he’s doing, a constitution,or a divine right to rule the world; but in the end it’s individuals, who can and do get tired.

  7. A.G.
    A.G. January 19, 2016 11:50 am

    “I have some books on ancient Irish illuminations.”

    I wish we lived closer. Occasional social and intellectual get togethers between the three of us would be enjoyable.

  8. Claire
    Claire January 19, 2016 12:32 pm

    A.G. — Thank you. I’ve had the same thought myself. But you’d be disappointed in me. I’m an awful dilettante.

    Bear — I interpret Cahill and Clark’s meaning differently, but I can see your point.

  9. Claire
    Claire January 19, 2016 12:36 pm

    Oh, another good thing about this book is that Cahill shows ancient Irish society (even after Patrick Christianized Ireland) as being rowdy, egalitarian, amazingly open-minded, humor-filled, and — although Catholic — definitely not Romanized Catholic. And not at all inclined to give deference to hierarchy. Not. At. All.

    All of which he says contributed to Ireland’s success in rescuing and preserving ancient learning.

    I thought that was cool.

  10. Bear
    Bear January 19, 2016 12:53 pm

    Claire, well, you had the whole book. I’m working off this excerpt. [grin]

  11. Pat
    Pat January 19, 2016 12:57 pm

    Having also recently finished “How the Irish Saved Civilization”, I was struck by the same notes.

    Clark: “What is really lost when a civilization wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible.”

    Claire: “Above all, they [social-justice pecksniffs] are bent on destruction of the individuality that was the best of our founding principles and is the best in us. …. What they aim for is to destroy “confidence in one’s own mental powers.” And that, far more than law or temporary social or religious mores or any one particular interpretation of history, is the civilization builder.”

    And this is all borne out in another book I’ve just finished, “The Greek Way”, by Edith Hamilton (especially _her_ first chapter). Western civilization was founded on an attitude of leisure that made order and balance possible: the “leisure” of independence (as individuals and as city-states), and confidence enough to believe in their own mental energy to find the “right way” to live. Theirs was the first “work ethic,” a quite-literal ethic which standard they were determined to raise for human beings to attain. Thus “Western civilization” was born. It didn’t last long in Greece, but it was passed down in perpetuity.

  12. Claire
    Claire January 19, 2016 1:44 pm

    “That to secure these (Creator-endowed, individual) rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

    “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it …”

    Alas, I don’t think either of these elegant phrases are of much help to people who’ve lost their philosophical bearings.

  13. MamaLiberty
    MamaLiberty January 19, 2016 2:27 pm

    There seem to be several different editions available at Amazon… Which is best, or all the same? I think I’ll get the last one. 🙂

    How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History Book 1)Apr 28, 2010
    by Thomas Cahill
    Kindle Edition
    $11.99

    Paperback
    $9.25

    How the Irish Saved Civilization Publisher: Anchor; Anchor Books ed edition1996
    by Thomas Cahill
    Paperback
    $3.81

    How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story Of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the fall of Rome to1995
    by Thomas Cahill
    Hardcover
    $2.99

  14. JWG
    JWG January 19, 2016 3:59 pm

    This could have been a short book, but it works just as well super concentrated into a few paragraphs.

  15. trying2b-amused
    trying2b-amused January 19, 2016 9:39 pm

    “What they aim for is to destroy ‘confidence in one’s own mental powers.’ And that, far more than law or temporary social or religious mores or any one particular interpretation of history, is the civilization builder. And that, millions now aim to tear down.”

    If Claire’s statement is true – and IMHO it ranks with the most profound truths ever spoken in 50 words or less – I think one must ask the question: Is religion in general, and Christianity (including its secular derivatives) in particular, a sound foundation for civilization? For myself, pondering that question puts me in mind of the bear riding the bicycle: What is remarkable is not that it is done poorly, but that it is done at all.

  16. Anonymous
    Anonymous January 20, 2016 1:32 am

    Comparing humans in a human society or cells in a human body to ants in an anthill is not a poetic truth, it is a poetic falsehood. The distributed decisionmaking doesn’t work the same. The individual cell or ant is dysfunctional as a lifeform, whereas the individual human can produce all of the functions of the full society except reproduction. Adding a mere second human enables that. As this comparison of human societies to anthills is false, we should consciously choose to not think with it, because that just leads to more error. Civilizations don’t get tired, because they aren’t alive. Anthills and single human bodies get tired, because they cannot be decomposed into smaller units which are themselves alive.

  17. R.L. Wurdack
    R.L. Wurdack January 20, 2016 6:45 am

    The causal relationship may be obscure or impossible to define in 300 words or less, but the effects of bandwidth and demand are clear. If an individual spends 99.5% of his time watching his own back or fighting demons he won’t be building castles or anthills.

  18. david
    david January 20, 2016 9:10 am

    And here I thought the Irish saved civilization by making whiskey socially acceptable….

    I wearied on a personal level, on May 4th, 1970, when it became apparent that students disagreeing with a government were committing an executable offense. I got even more wearied over the next few years when I found it very difficult to get hired anywhere, because of things like the length of my hair, the VW beetle I drove, etc.

    So now I keep a low profile as much as I can, I trust no government nor their agents, constantly strive to reduce the control that any person or organization can exert over my choices or directions, and I’m armed in hopes of preserving what measure of real life / genuine liberty I have managed to achieve. I guard my privacy, guard my home, and guard my finances against any and all. It’s been costly in more ways than one to live like that, but I don’t see how I could have ever made more pedestrian choices and lived my life for the ability to watch the prime-time sitcom.

  19. Tahn
    Tahn January 20, 2016 9:30 am

    Claire

    Perhaps I missed it but the only definition of “civilization” I found reference to here was Bears: “Civilization is shorthand for an association of individuals with some common interest that allows them to interact and often operate as a group. That common element might be a set of social values, a belief that the emperor knows what he’s doing, a constitution, or a divine right to rule the world; but in the end it’s individuals, who can and do get tired.”

    Did the authors provide another?

    I have always liked the definition that George Potter and I came up with;

  20. Tahn
    Tahn January 20, 2016 9:31 am

    A true civilization is one where people are “civil” to one another.

    (Posting problem. Sorry)

  21. Pat
    Pat January 20, 2016 10:22 am

    I agree [with Tahn and George Potter].

    I took away from the book that “civilization” referred to the literary contributions that have been handed down throughout what is defined by the term, “Western civilization.” It also seemed to refer to the author’s idea of “civilized Christianity” [my term, not the author’s.] At least that’s how I read his take.

    The monks did a good job of retaining, and later spreading, those literary writings across Europe and beyond, but I was somewhat disappointed that the author emphasized Christianity as the defining method to achieve “civilization.” There was less emphasis on general ethical behavior than I would have liked… i.e. less on civility, as Tahn and G.P. would say.

    As for societies in general, some of the least civilized “civilizations” exist in the busiest, most populous locales.

  22. Historian
    Historian January 21, 2016 2:46 am

    Like Claire, I’m late to the party, and worse, I’ve Irish ancestors. I am going to have to get this book and read it. Before I do, a couple of thoughts-

    There is no doubt that philosophy (including ethics, morals, epistemology and other branches) was preserved by Christianity after the fall of Rome. Rand, among many others, denied that such matters were necessarily the exclusive property of Christianity specifically or religion generally.

    There are lots of different definitions of ‘civilization,’ and I shall have to consider that topic in more depth.

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