It probably won’t happen during the lifetime of us old codgers who are nearing the end, but we are definitely witnessing the beginnings of it. History usually moves slowly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it didn’t fall in a day. The barbarians—Goths, Visigoths, Lombards, Huns, Franks, Democrats, etc.—started coming in around the 3rd century, and some maybe even sooner. Rome could have stopped them, of course; nothing is truly historically “inevitable,” but Rome didn’t stop them, and the last Roman emperor was ejected in 476 A.D. The barbarians had definitely arrived by then.
We popularly call the next few centuries of European history the “Dark Ages.” Historians of the period don’t especially like that term, but it’s stuck. We consider “classical” Greece and Rome high periods in European history. But the descent after Rome into a “darker” period under uncivilized barbarians and tyrannical governments was not one of Europe’s finest. But again, it didn’t arrive overnight, and Europe didn’t get out of it overnight, either. Several centuries elapsed before the continent began to truly prosper, expand, and show its might. It takes a while to clear away a jungle; and the jungle always seems to want to grow back. And it will, especially if people of barbarian mentality are running the show. And that appears to be increasingly the case in Western Civilization today.
Here is a recent Breitbart headline that caught my attention: “British Govt. Plan to Scrap Jury Trials Clears First Hurdle; Starmer Stooge Spins Dismantling of Rights as ‘Modernization.’” So, eliminating one of Western Civilization’s most basic rights, one of its greatest gifts to mankind—the right to a trial by a jury of one’s peers—is “modernization.” The Romans had jury trials; their abolition is one reasons for the rise of the “Dark Ages.” And now, the first steps are being taken in that direction again.
And from England, the home of Magna Carta and John Ball, of all places.
Neither the Greeks nor the Romans were perfect, of course. There has never been, nor will there ever be on this earth, a perfect people or perfect civilization. But there is no question that Greek philosophy and democracy, coupled with Roman law and republicanism, were great advancements in the mind, government, and civilizing of human beings. Add Judeo-Christian morality, which was spread out of the “pax Romana,” and Western Civilization had all the makings of as “perfect” a civilization as imperfect human beings could probably ever create.
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The respect for life and property that these three treasures gave us produced the greatest freedoms and prosperity the world has ever seen. Christianity led Europe out of the Dark Ages and barbarian control, and the Europeans, slowly but surely (with a huge boost from the American Founding Fathers), rediscovered Greek democracy and philosophy, and Roman republicanism and law. Yes, it took a while—several centuries. But it happened, and culminated in the greatest country the world has ever seen—the United States of America.
Our roots came out of an England that now apparently wants to “modernize” and burn those roots. The jungle, oh, the jungle. It never gives up.
The gifts of Greece, Rome, and Judeo-Christianity built Western Civilization. But now, one by one, they are slowly being dismantled and torn down. Beginning with the French Enlightenment, through German “rationalism,” and with the assistance of Darwinian materialism and Marxist “scientific socialism,” the supreme morality that Christianity gave us is being whittled away for…a return to barbarism. We no longer respect human life. So many claim to not know the difference between a man and woman, and marriage and the family are eroding rapidly. Men do that which is right in their own eyes. Live and let live. Might makes right. The hammers have been pounding against the foundation of Western Civilization for generations now. And they’ve just about destroyed. The jungle arrives…
And as with Rome, the barbarians have come into both Europe and America, at the invitation of those who know nothing about history. Immigration—controlled and regulated to properly assimilate the migrants into society—is not a bad thing, and indeed, helped build America. But throwing the doors open to any and every mentality and ethos, to people with no heritage or history of Greek democracy, Roman law, or Judeo-Christian morality, is a recipe for a return to the Dark Ages. These people the Democrats want in America are the very kinds of people who overran and destroyed Rome. And it was “leaders” in Rome like those in the Democratic Party who let it happen. If it continues, how can we avoid another “Dark Ages?”
And now the Marxists, with their love of totalitarian government and hatred of God-given rights, have arisen to “modernize” the system. I don’t know if England will truly scrap the jury system; I only know there are some in England, as in America, who want to control what “rights” the people have. That isn’t Western Civilization. That isn’t the Declaration of Independence. That is fascist, or communist, totalitarianism. When a Democratic senator, a few months ago, said that our rights come from government, not God, that was a total repudiation of the very fundamentals of American civilization.
It’s what the Democrats want. A barbarism which they hope will eventually give them control. Totalitarian government and ethical subjectivism. A new Dark Ages.
So, they have, and continue to, attack Judeo-Christian morality. They preach “democracy” all the while building and striving for a totalitarian government their elite will command. And now, “modernization” means destruction of Roman law and the system of jury trial. It won’t happen overnight, of course; history doesn’t work that way.
But if we continue on this present course, a new “Dark Ages” is inevitable. The king and his court will love it; the elite always do. But the mass of peasants will suffer. As they always do.
My substacks are a little unique. Not just current events, but history, our Founding Fathers, what America was meant to be, and Biblical exegesis. Check them out. “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com) and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com). Both free. Follow me on X: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, “Whitewater,” “River Bend,” “Return to River Bend,” and “Allie’s Dilemma,” all available on Amazon.

