In the fifth century storm upon storm out of the dark North swept away in a great deluge of barbarism all the civilization of the western half of the Roman Empire. From the Atlantic to Constantinople, and from the Rhine to the Danube to the deserts of Africa, all that was learned and cultivated, all that was artistic and beautiful, was overwhelmed in an avalanche of ruin in which not only the triumphs of architecture, literature, and art, produced by many centuries of a high civilization, but also those who could create such things afresh, were involved in one general destruction.

G.F. Young

Civilization is fragile. It can swept away in a very short time. In fact, Forces are gathering right now to sweep it away. Those who should have been defending our civilization have tended to join with the destroyers: politicians, professors, artists, writers, even scientists. They don’t seem to know what they are doing.