The controversy surrounding a recent speaker at Virginia Tech—who justified the slogan “Death to America”—is not an isolated occurrence. It is part of a broader and deeply corrosive cultural pattern. Incidents such as this attract attention for their shock value, but they are unmistakable symptoms of a widespread intellectual and moral disorder affecting Western institutions, particularly academia.
At the heart of this disorder lies a growing civilizational self-doubt, which has morphed into something more dangerous: outright self-rejection and self-destruction. Western history is no longer approached as a complex legacy, marked by both common failings and unparalleled achievements—but is instead subjected to anachronistic and biased persecution.
It calls to mind the medieval Cadaver Synod, in which the body of Pope Formosus was exhumed and put on trial. The past is no longer studied with curiosity and appreciation; it is prosecuted without any meaningful opportunity for defense. It is judged by utopian standards of perfection, with blatant disregard for objectivity, historical context, or the undeniable achievements that unfolded over time.
This tendency did not emerge overnight. It reflects a long trajectory of critique within Western thought itself: from early socialist indictments of inequality, through classical Marxism, to cultural Marxism, critical theory, and postmodernism. Their present culmination is intersectionality, which reduces human experience to rigid frameworks of power, grievance, and identity. These theoretical frameworks, as well as their practical implementations, do not stimulate human flourishing but institute a form of “oppression Olympics.” Such ideas erode the very foundations that made free speech and critical inquiry possible in the first place: liberty, the rule of law, and the primacy of individual rights.
The remedy to social problems is not cultural arsonism, which seeks to burn down the entire civilizational edifice. What is required instead is renewal: a confident and deliberate re-engagement with the best of the Western intellectual and civic tradition. This includes revitalizing the classical liberal arts, which cultivate disciplined thought, moral reasoning, and historical understanding. It presupposes a serious commitment to American civics, rooted in constitutional principles and political responsibility. Such an education does not demand blind and uncritical acceptance of everything the past contains. But it does require intellectual honesty, proportion, gratitude, and acknowledgment of the exceptional achievements of free societies.
A striking contrast to the Virginia Tech episode was offered in recent speeches delivered by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at venues like Cornell University and the University of Dallas. In these addresses, Johnson argued unapologetically for the value and continuity of Western civilization as an unparalleled experiment in ordered liberty.
Invoking the depth of that tradition, Johnson recited lengthy passages from the opening of Homer’s Iliad in the original Greek—a symbolic affirmation that the foundations of the West remain alive and worth preserving. The enthusiastic applause that followed gives reason for hope that even among younger generations, the Classics and Western inheritance are treated with interest and appreciation.
These two moments—one marked by extremist provocation and hatred, the other by rational confidence and continuity—encapsulate a larger struggle over the meaning and future of the West. The stakes in this struggle extend far beyond any campus controversy. They concern whether Western societies will continue to understand themselves as fruitful traditions capable of renewal or as irredeemable structures deserving to self-destruct.
The outcome is not predetermined. It will depend on the West’s will to survive and on how we educate future generations. What is certain, however, is that civilizations do not endure when their internal and external enemies are heeded. Civilizations survive only when they are properly understood, consciously valued, and deliberately sustained.
Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.
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