I’ve been to many conferences and lectures over the past several years where inspiring speakers tell the audience that we must have hope for the future of Western civilization. This call is generally accompanied by inspiring anecdotes of those who held firm in the face of oppression, usually in circumstances far more dire than our own, presented as evidence that decline can be stopped and that and that all we need is a little courage and a lot of hard work, and cultural reformation is possible.
Leaving that question to the side for one moment — Dr. Charles Murray noted his own skepticism on that point on my podcast last month — I think that it may be important to consider that hopefulness may not be the most helpful disposition in the future. Instead, defiance in the face of an overwhelmingly anti-Christian culture will in all likelihood be in order.
