by Deb Bucknam
In the year 1800, a mere 224 years ago, worldwide life expectancy was age 27. That stark statistic, assuredly unchanged for thousands of years, reveals the brutality of life for the human species over the millennia. Many children died before age five; women routinely died during childbirth or shortly thereafter; horrible diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, bubonic plague, small pox, tuberculosis, malaria, devasted whole populations.
Today world-wide life expectancy is age 73.
What happened to utterly transform human existence in such a short time, a mere blink of an eye, in the timespan of human history?
What changed was the embracing by the people of the West, and then others, of the proposition that all of us are created equal, in the image of God; and as individuals, we have certain inalienable rights that government cannot take away. Coupled with that, in the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed, Adam Smith wrote “The Wealth of Nations”, a treatise on economic freedom, arguing that individuals, not the governing class, should be free to make a profit and keep the fruits of their labors.
The rule of law, free speech, religious freedom, and the right to own and develop private property were part of these revolutionary ideas that finally gave ordinary individuals power that had long been reserved only to the ruling classes.
Ordinary people took hold of this new-found power, and the results boggle the mind: a nearly ½ century increase in life expectancy is one metric that can only hint at the astounding human progress achieved.
In retreat were the barbarian values of tribalism, authoritarianism, cultism and violence—the ancient chains that held ordinary people in peonage—and the ruling classes in virtually absolute power.
To be sure the barbarians have never been in full retreat. The French Revolution deteriorated into barbarism during this same period, culminating with the guillotine. Other barbarian movements sprang up, and are with us today; Communism, Fascism, Radical Islamism. The result of these barbarian movements has been the death of tens of millions of people, and brutish existence for the survivors.
Today, barbarian ideas are resurgent in the West and across the world.
• Tribalism: this is the principal feature of barbarism. People are judged by some inherent tribal quality, not as individuals. Diversity Equity and Inclusion ideology, as presently being taught in our schools, colleges, and in government and corporate trainings is a doctrine of tribalism. White people, from the day they are born, are imbued with the original sin of racism, and Blacks, Muslims, gays, and trans-people and other designated tribes are from birth, oppressed and therefore, sinless. Individual character has no place in the ideology of tribalism.
• Authoritarianism: This is a requirement of barbarism, because different standards of laws and morality depend on tribal identity, and this manifest injustice can only be administered and enforced by authoritarian rulers.
• Cultism: the free flow of ideas is an anathema to barbarians. The tribe must chant the mantras; repeat the phrases, transmit the myths, tell the lies, without questioning. Different ideas, and particularly inconvenient facts, must be quashed, with violence if necessary. There is no universal truth, just “our” truth—the “truth” of the tribe. And, tellingly, members of the “oppressed” tribes who do not adhere to their tribe’s myths and mantras are often punished more severely than those who do not belong to the tribe.
• Violence: tribalism promotes violence without consequence The tens of millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Kazaks, Jews, Chinese, Muslims and others who died in the 20th century from barbarian Communist and Socialist dictatorships do not even merit a sentence in most history text books. On October 7, 2023, 1400 innocent Israelis died at the hands of barbarians. A child was pulled from his mother’s womb and shot, a mother and her child bound together by barbed wire and burned to death, and a young woman killed and her naked body paraded through the streets of Gaza to the cheers of hundreds. Yet the actions of Gazans have been justified, or even celebrated because of their membership in an “oppressed” tribe.
These values are meant to restore the ancient regime where the peasants return to their rightful place, tribal hatreds thrive, and the ruling class dominates by force and fear.
It is time to stand up to the barbarians. The values of individual freedom and value have resulted in a world, while not perfect, stunningly better for the billions living today compared to our ancestors. Here is what we must do:
• Insist on defunding DEI programs. Taxpayers have paid tens of millions of dollars for this hateful tribalistic ideology. It needs to stop.
• Require that our government hold everyone to the same standard of law, and punish violent anti-Semites with the same vigor as any other violent racists.
• Insist that our schools teach our children the values of our civilization: individual worth, freedom, rule of law, equal justice.
By fighting for the values that brought us to this elevated place in human history, we can assure our children and grandchildren will also enjoy these wonderful blessings.