The Upside of the Downside

[Valin]

Townhall:

 

Jonah Goldberg

6/6/12

 

 

One of my heroes, Irving Kristol, used to say that there's nothing wrong with the country a bad recession couldn't fix.

 

Kristol (father of the more famous Bill, by the way) wasn't hoping for a recession, he was merely making the point that so many of the problems with our culture, both popular and political, were the sorts of challenges that come with affluence.

 

Wealth makes it easier to abandon the old customs, rituals and habits of the heart that generated the wealth in the first place.

 

(Snip)

 

Edward Gibbon's theory of the fall of the Roman Empire has come in for some revision over the years, but his basic thesis still has merit. The Romans became so wealthy they lost the civic and martial virtues that built the empire in the first place. They in effect contracted out the hard work of civilization that allows civilization to continue.

 

(Snip)