A decline in courage.

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.

Political and intellectual bureaucrats show depression, passivity, and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in theoretical reflections to explain how realistic, reasonable, as well as intellectually and even morally worn [justified] it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice.^[1]

Cultural enrichment.

Terms like "multicultural," "diversity," "undocumented," "compassion," "justice," "legacy of slavery," "structural racism," "white privilege," "microaggression," "religion," "equality," "living constitution," "fair share," "capitalism," "public service," "choice," "nationalism," "racism," "affirmative action," "poverty," "amnesty," "vibrant," "public schools," "nation of immigrants," "entitlements," "welfare," "man-caused disaster," "workplace violence," "refugee," "anchor baby," "LGBTPDQ," and "quantitative easing," for example, all . . . all . . . involve a deliberate failure to address a multitude of other relevant aspects of the problem in question, aspects that entail considerations of responsibility, upholding standards, legitimate ethnic and racial interests, saying no, exclusion, alienage, unmitigated gall, demagoguery, treason, surrender, depravity, weakness, contempt for the law of the land, regression, obsequiousness, and the like.

Rather than confront our social, political, economic, and moral problems we define deviancy and weakness down and away. The very vocabulary of our national life represents cowardice. And lies.

Notes
^[1] "A World Split Apart." Commencement Address, Harvard University, June 8, 1978. By Alexander Solzhenitsyn, American Rhetoric. Online Speech Bank.