{"id":12539,"date":"2020-08-02T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12539"},"modified":"2020-07-31T17:40:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T00:40:09","slug":"our-summer-of-cultural-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-summer-of-cultural-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Summer of Cultural Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cultural&nbsp;suicide used to be a popular diagnosis of why things suddenly just quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions, and cultures simply died off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors\u2019 respect for moral and spiritual laws &nbsp;\u2014 such as the need for thrift, moderation, and transcendence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take professional sports. Over the past century, professional football, basketball, and baseball were racially integrated, and they adopted a uniform code of patriotic observance. The three leagues offered fans a pleasant respite from daily barroom politics. As a result, by the 21st century, the NFL, NBA, and MLB had become global multi-billion-dollar enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then hubris ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/07\/summer-cultural-suicide-sports-movies-schools-go-woke\/\">Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Cultural&nbsp;suicide used to be a popular diagnosis of why things suddenly just quit. Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions, and cultures simply died off. Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3gf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12599,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/cultural-suicide-is-painless\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":0},"title":"Cultural Suicide Is Painless","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness In February, New York was the world\u2019s most dynamic metropolis. By August, the city was more like the ruins of Ephesus. It is not all that hard to blow up a culture. You can do it in a summer if you haven\u2019t much worry\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4756,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-should-we-stop-supporting-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":1},"title":"When Should We Stop Supporting Israel?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman raises among some Americans the question\u2014at what point should we reconsider our rather blanket support for the Israelis and show a more even-handed attitude toward the Palestinians? The answer, it seems to me, should be assessed in cultural,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;March 2004&quot;","block_context":{"text":"March 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/march-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5450,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/waning-support-for-suicide-attacks-in-the-muslim-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":2},"title":"Waning Support for Suicide-Attacks in the Muslim World?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers A recent poll released by the Pew Research Center indicates that, among other things, support for suicide-attacks \u2014 or, what are known in Islamic terminology as \u201cmartyrdom operations\u201d \u2014 is on the decline in the Islamic world. There is no denying that there are a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Raymond Ibrahim&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6001,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/western-cultural-suicide\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":3},"title":"Western Cultural Suicide","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We are blind to the contradictions in welcoming an immigrant but not making him one of us. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Multiculturalism \u2014 as opposed to the notion of a multiracial society united by a single culture \u2014 has become an abject contradiction in the modern Western\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Immigration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13787,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eeyores-cabinet-cannibalism-suicide-or-what-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":4},"title":"Eeyore\u2019s Cabinet: \u201cCannibalism, Suicide, or What?\u201d","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Image by vinct @ Getty Images Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part Two Item: For the millions of Americans who lived through inflation and stagflation from 1974-1983, why would we ever wish to return to all that? We more or less avoided both the last forty years by being\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eeyores-cabinet-cannibalism-suicide-or-what-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Cannibalism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Cannibalism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Cannibalism.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Cannibalism.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Cannibalism.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13417,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eeyores-cabinet-a-too-decadent-culture\/","url_meta":{"origin":12539,"position":5},"title":"Eeyore&#8217;s Cabinet: The Decadent Culture","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Swing by Jean-Honor\u00e9 Fragonard, 1767: Detail Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers I've been reading the\u00a0Satyricon\u00a0again, which I taught for a number of years in early imperial Latin literature classes for advanced Latin students. The Latin, outside of the slang and neologisms, and the fragmented text, is pretty easy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/fragonard-the-swing.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12541,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions\/12541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}