Glenn Beaton’s latest column, “Barbarians are well past the gate” (Commentary, April 7, Aspen Times), concludes with some gloomy speculation about “another long Dark Age” — gloomy because it is so plausible.
During the Trojan War, as recounted by Homer, the warrior Hector was all that impeded the destruction of Troy by the Mycenaean Greeks thronged beyond the city walls. When Hector eventually succumbed to the wrath of Achilles, not only was Troy soon plundered and burned to the ground, but their Mycenaean conquerors, culturally exhausted from their long siege, were subsequently plunged into the Greek Dark Age, which lasted for 500 years until “the Ionian miracle” in the eighth century BCE.
For Hector, Troy and the Greeks substitute Donald Trump, the United States and the America-hating hordes gathered beneath the banner of the Democrat party.
When Trump eventually succumbs — as Brexiteers are now doing to The Remainers — it will mark the final stage in the decline of the West. Turn out the lights. The greatest experiment in human liberty ever conceived will go the way of the British Empire that engendered it.
From the ancient Bernie Sanders to millennial Young Turks such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the new barbarians had best consider what they are seeking. When America goes down, it all goes down.
Chad Klinger
Basalt