The Future of the West
Former Secretary of State Al Haig gave a pretty good speech not long ago entitled There Is A West. In it, he expresses some doubt about the spread of democracy, but gives a vigorous and unwavering endorsement of NATO, seeing it as being more vital and necessary than ever, and gives a ringing defense of Western liberal values. Definitely worth reading.
I really think he's right about NATO especially.
(Thanks, Jerry.)
There most certainly is a West, of which we, the United States, are integrally and inseparably a part, and it must be defended at all cost. The Western "Faustian" High Culture, of which Oswald Spengler wrote. The Ego striving for the Infinite. From the Vikings to cathedrals to skyscrapers to our ascension into outer space.
It's interesting, but the first time I encountered the Spenglerian ideas mentioned above by Steven was in the science fiction of Poul Anderson and James P. Hogan. Anderson I could understand; his primary focus was on how future cultures, but Hogan, with his hard-science outlook, was surprising. But then, science fiction is a pretty Faustian genre, isn't it?
I am sorry, but "I AM IN CHARGE!!!"