David, another good essay. All is not lost. Yesterday, a British Columbia judge upheld Canada’s criminal prohibition of polygamy. In his 300+ page ruling, he recognizes that societies permitting polygamy have been more the norm than the exception in human history, and that the Western enforcement of monogamy is the historical exception (howevermuch it has spread around the world in recent years). He defends this exceptionalism, in face of the limits it puts on polygamists’ religious freedom, because he says it it the basis of a free society, and that polygamy is inherently evil from the perspective of a free and democratic society. In short, it is still possible to find institituions in our society that will resist the cries of white guilt that denounce all claims on Western exceptionalism. As far as I can tell, there is more support than criticism of the judge’s ruling in the public sphere.
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/SC/11/15/2011BCSC1588.htm#SCJTITLEBookMark1111
I believe a world of 7 billion people cannot survive without re-discovery of the traditions of individual freedom that makes modern science, markets, and a global economy possible. So, I have faith that in face of crises that will unfold in the short term, the individual will survive.
