Dymphna, I should have mentoned in the post you reference that “Mandarins of the Future …” was actually published in January 2004, then published in paperback in February 2007. At first I was shocked to learn how long the book had been out. But on reflection it’s no great wonder that the book did not get as much as attention as it merited, given the era, which seems a thousand years ago considering all we’ve learned since then. It was at the time when the Iraq expedition, and all the expectations
that went with it, were falling apart, and Iran was taking center stage. But to everything there is a season. I think that those of us who have kept well informed about the struggle around the globe for democracy, the progress of transnational terrorism and crime, and the scaling back of high expectations that globalization would solve all the world’s ills are today much better prepared than in 2004 to absorb the lessons in “Mandarins.”

Wretchard’s post and the comments in response are dealing with a very important topic, of course. I haven’t yet had time to read Spengler’s column but this past year I’ve closely followed Mark Steyn’s essays on the demographics issue.

There seems to be a certain mathematical certainty about the doomsday scenario for ‘native’ European populations. But to make the leap that this signals the death of Western culture is to give too much importance to lines on a map. Ayn Rand — the heart and soul of Western thinking — is a huge hit in regions of China where entrepreneurship is the name of the game, and so is Christianity. Things are going to be different because nothing stays the same. But the truth is unchanging. The Western tradition has much truth, and no amount of political correctness can overturn that fact. The truths will not be lost, provided we keep telling them.