The moment in modern civilisation equivalent to the fall of the Roman Empire was the First World War... most particularly almost exactly one hundred and three years ago the Battle of the Somme in 1916 when we threw away the flower of our manhood.
It's a point of view worth preserving because something clearly has gone wrong and something clearly was thrown away round about this time.
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Hitchens is far better on this historical stuff than on modern politics, in my view. Eloquent and often quite moving.
Regarding WW1, I remember reading an article which argued that the experience of the trenches started a huge wave of cynicism and distrust in this country, which is yet to play itself out. The British public were ever after suspicious of those who gave orders, and deference became a mere outward show.
Sam - yes the trenches and the death toll must have created an enormous wave of cynicism. I'm sure there were other factors too such as what at the time appeared to be a popular and successful uprising in Russia.
There's another school of thought that says the tipping point was 1967, when abortion was legalised. Since that point 8.7m Britons have been terminated. Kind of puts the deaths in WW1 and WW2 into perspective. The country basically decided to stop breeding and commit demographic suicide..............
Sobers - yes it is demographic suicide and as we know, enormous efforts have been made to describe it as something else and pretend it isn't happening. I'd read Douglas Murray's book, The Strange Death of Europe but I know I'd find it depressing.
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