I can’t believe how long it took me to buy and read this book. It’s been on my list for years at this point.
The last chapter or two struck me emotionally in a way I did not expect. I just put the book down, so it’s quite a fresh feeling, and it stings.
I remember myself, nearly four years ago now, getting a deeper education on so many evils in the world (in particular the Islamic world) and being gripped by a feeling of hopelessness, rage, and terror.
And then came the gut-punch of realization that brought to the surface the questions I’d never asked properly: “What gives me the strength to carry on against impossible odds? Is there anything I believe that is worth sacrificing for?”
The answer was Christ, and I answered His call rather passionately. I have no regrets.
For a book written 20 years ago, it has only become more correct with age. Buchanan was right about a heck of a lot – not everything, no, but a lot – and it is growing rather tiresome watching 99% of conservative leaders refuse to learn lessons he laid out in this easy to read, entertaining book.
I found the book shocking in the sense that it takes a lot to depress me or to galvanize me at this point in regard to politics and religion, but this book still did it. I’m an optimist in the Christian sense, but being a Catholic who converted in the era of Pope Francis and the Summer of Shame and Pachamama and all the rest, I’m at home with shame and ruin. Ditto for my politics. Ever since I realized something was up with feminism in my teens, I couldn’t really go back.
It took some time (unlike Mr. Buchanan, I am a child of the time, even being born to married parents and raised going to an Orthodox Church every Sunday, it wasn’t sufficient to keep the reek of culture off. That’s another long story). I tumbled towards the right, moving away from almost literally every single person I grew up, and it wasn’t really fun. It was hard.
It was hard always being the person who didn’t fit in, castigated by the very people who preached being myself and achieving my dreams and all the rest. But isn’t that always the way?
I am “farther to the right” than Buchanan on certain things, just plain disagree with him on a few points, but man, I’m amazed at how this now-elderly American fellow speaks so many things that I’ve been thinking back and forth on as a millennial from Canada raised by liberals.
Maybe today was the right time for me to read this. This book connects the world of my childhood with my present day, and makes sense of how I changed in that time in a world that went the other direction. And things have changed. As Buchanan laments the loss of his old-timey upbringing, I’m running to my husband to tell him just how crazy it is to think that back in 2000, the Boy Scouts were getting into hot water for not letting homosexual men camp with young boys.
In the current era, of course, they were pressured into accepting girls.
I am almost nostalgic for the trampy music videos of 2003, because at least back then porn stars and drag queens weren’t reading to children.
The prognosis is dire, and I like that Buchanan is honest about that. Things have only gotten worse since he wrote Death of the West. Much worse, in fact. But I know that God did amazing things for me that I didn’t deserve, and I now have two children (and Lord willing, we would love more) who my husband and I are raising to serve Jesus Christ.
I’ve already surrendered my reputation, peace with family and friends, and now thanks to the vaccine mandates in my country that impact my husband’s field, we are giving up our financial stability and dreams of owning a house. On top of that, of course, we’re not allowed to eat in restaurants or do all kinds of other things, but hey, we can take it.
The future belongs to those who show up, and my family is going to be there. We may yet lose the West, but I’m not surrendering God nor country.
You can grab your own copy here. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. =)
