LECTURE
Delivered October 13, 2015 No. 1265 | December 8, 2015

The Future of European Civilization: Lessons for America

Roger Scruton

Abstract: America has much to learn from Europe’s current condition.

In Europe, the decline in religious faith has led to a universal weaken-
ing of society and a loss of confidence in the value of its civilization. And
Key Points
the effects of this have been grave: throngs of unassimilated immigrants, nn The threats confronting Europe
also confront America: mass
unchecked military threats from abroad, and confusion about nation-
immigration of people whose
al identity threaten Europe’s future. America, by contrast, still shows loyalty cannot be guaranteed,
many signs of strength. Nonetheless, should we lose our sense of shared the purging of religious assump-
identity, Europe’s path likely awaits. tions from the public square,
and the state’s growth which

I n a gloomy but strangely enthralling book published at the end of

the First World War, the historian and polymath Oswald Spen-
gler wrote of the decline of the West, arguing that Europe was mov-
nn
squeezes out civil society.
Europe is also threatened by the
rise of confused human rights
ing inevitably to its end according to a pattern that can be observed doctrines which often contra-
among civilizations from the beginning of recorded history. Each dict common sense, the law, and
historical superorganism, he argued, displays its distinctive and national security interests.
defining spirit through its culture. That of the West is “Faustian”— nn Americans have something
involving an outgoing and conquering attitude to the world dis- Europeans lack: a sense of
played in the science, art, and institutions that came to fruition shared identity.
at the Reformation, spread themselves far and wide through the nn This sense of identity depends
Enlightenment, and then reached a crisis at the French Revolution. on borders, laws defined by ter-
After that great period, things began to ossify into rigid legal and ritory, and preserving the idea of
bureaucratic forms. Thus was born the period of “civilization,” typi- the nation.
fied by Napoleon’s new rationalization of the old spirit of France.
Culture leads to civilization, which in turn leads to decay and then
death. The culture of the West, Spengler argued, will dwindle to a
purely mechanical simulacrum of its former greatness before disap-
pearing entirely.

This paper, in its entirety, can be found at http://report.heritage.org/hl1265

The Russell Kirk Memorial Lectures
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LECTURE | NO. 1265
Delivered October 13, 2015 

In the wake of the First World War, Europe was America from the facts presented by Europe. It could
more than normally receptive to stories of its doom, be that the rapid and radical decline that we witness
and Spengler was eagerly embraced by the reading on our side of the Atlantic has no equivalent here. Or,
public. Despite a polemical attack from G. K. Ches- if it has an equivalent, it would be presumptuous to
terton, his brand of cultural pessimism survived to assume that the American decline can be understood
gather momentum with the outbreak of the Second outside the special context provided by the history
World War and to exert a mesmerizing influence and self-image of the United States.
over the post-war literary world.
Many of Spengler’s arguments are sophistical, The European Union
many of his facts are invented and his comparisons and the Threats to Europe
far-fetched, but it is difficult, on reading Spengler Let me summarize some relevant facts about
now, to think that his prophecy of doom was entire- Europe and its civilization today. There is no doubt in
ly unfounded. In one particular, he has surely been my mind both that Europe is now profoundly threat-
proven right, which is that the culture of Europe is ened and also that the approach of the European
destined to become an empty shell, held in place by Union to the threats is informed by a comprehensive
rigid structures of law and bureaucracy around the failure to understand them. The threats come from
void where art and religion were once enthroned both inside and outside, and the two are connected.
in splendor. From inside, we confront the radicalization of our
In one particular, however, Spengler seems to Muslim populations and the loss of the core struc-
have been wholly off-beam, and that is America. His tures of European society: the family, marriage, the
Eurocentric vision is focused, like that of Marx, on Christian faith, and little platoons built from those
the great turning points in our continental history: things. From outside, we confront mass migration of
the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlighten- populations seeking the benefits of European legal
ment, the French Revolution. He has nothing, or order without assuming the cost. And we confront
nothing significant, to say about the other revolu- a growing military threat from Russia. In the past,
tion that preceded the French by 13 years and which that threat has been countered by the NATO alli-
led to the founding of the longest-lasting democracy ance, but the alliance has been weakened both by
that the world has so far known. European indifference and by the isolationist for-
The American Revolution was, for Spengler, a eign policy of the Obama Administration.
distant commotion like the bursting of a supernova
light-years away in space, a tiny pinpoint of light in
the ambient darkness, but the nation that was born Europe has defenses against armed
on these shores has proved itself more resilient, more invasion, but it has no defenses against
creative, and more able to sustain its defining mission
than any other in the modern world. It is, of course,
those who invade without weapons.
tied to Europe, and to one European country in par-
ticular, by language, history, culture, and institutions. The radicalization of our Muslim populations is
It is a product of the European diaspora, and in partic- connected to the migration problem: Not all those
ular of the English religious and political inheritance. fleeing the Middle East are hostile to the Islamist
The American Constitution does not make sense philosophy of ISIS. Many come ready to bear arms
without that inheritance and is in one interpretation against their hosts, and recent atrocities in France
simply an attempt to transcribe into a document the have shown the extent to which new arrivals are
civic freedom that the English won for themselves ready and willing to join the cause of Allah against
over centuries of common-law government. the infidel. As ISIS consolidates its grip on Syria and
Nevertheless, the American Revolution was in loses what support it has among the local popula-
itself a move away from Europe, an attempt to embark tions, it will increasingly seek to export its Islamist
on a different kind of history from those that had pre- ideology and the violence associated with it.
vailed across the ocean, and although the ties to Brit- Such is the lesson of modern history: that revo-
ain remain, it is not possible to predict the condition of lutionary governments become stable when they

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Delivered October 13, 2015 

can export their chaos to their neighbors. Europe top, and the people who allow them are those whom
has defenses against armed invasion, but it has no they wish to control. In any case, whatever the cause,
defenses against those who invade without weapons. there is no doubt as to the effect. Europe is rapidly
The big questions in my mind are these: To what jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found
extent is the loss of our traditional religion and the nothing to put in the place of it save the religion of
culture that grew from it responsible for our weak- “human rights.”
ness in the face of these threats, and what could we I call this a religion because it is designed express-
conceivably do now to remedy the defect? ly to fill the hole in people’s worldview that is left
Those questions are difficult even to discuss. when religion is taken away. The notion of a human
The EU institutions have made a point of remov- right purports to offer the ground for moral opinions,
ing all references to the Christian religion and its for legal precepts, for policies designed to establish
moral legacy from official documents, on the view order in places where people are in competition and
that such things will constitute discrimination in conflict. However, it is itself without foundations. If
favor of one group of Europeans over another. Cases you ask what religion commands or forbids, you usu-
brought before the European Court of Human ally get a clear answer in terms of God’s revealed law
Rights and also the European Court of Justice (the or the Magisterium of the church. If you ask what
court charged with the application and enforcement rights are human or natural or fundamental, you get
of the treaties) are pushing for continent-wide laws a different answer depending on whom you ask, and
permitting gay marriage, easy divorce, and abor- nobody seems to agree with anyone else regarding
tion on demand, as well as laws banning the crucifix the procedure for resolving conflicts.
from public places and curtailing the teaching of the Consider the dispute over marriage. Is it a right or
Christian religion in schools. not? If so, what does it permit? Does it grant a right
These initiatives have their parallels here in to marry a partner of the same sex? And if yes, does
America, and in the same way that liberal activists it therefore permit incestuous marriage too? The
have used the Supreme Court to overrule the reli- arguments are endless, and nobody knows how to
gion-based decisions of state legislatures, secular- settle them.
ists and Islamists are using the European courts to
impose their vision on the nation-states of Europe.
Europe is rapidly jettisoning its
The De-Christianizing of Europe Christian heritage and has found
This de-Christianizing of Europe is being pur-
sued also through the European Parliament and
nothing to put in the place of it
its Fundamental Rights Agency, charged with the save the religion of “human rights.”
advocacy of human rights at all legislative levels.
The Fundamental Rights Agency is led by activists
in the cause of “gender equality” and LGBT rights Things are made more complex still by the inclu-
and is inherently hostile to the traditional family sion, in all European provisions, of “non-discrim-
and to the religion-based morality that shaped it. ination” as a human right. When offering a ben-
It is now pressing for the recognition of abortion as efit, a contract of employment, a place in a college,
a human right—presumably a right of the mother or a bed in a hospital, you are commanded not to
rather than the child. It is active in promoting the discriminate on grounds of…there then follows
“gender agenda” wherever this can be brought into a list derived from the victims of recent history:
play and is staffed largely by people who have spent race, ethnic group, religion, gender, sexual orien-
their lives as busybodies and who have never done tation, and whatever is next to be discovered. But
what my parents would have called an honest job all coherent societies are based on discrimination:
of work. A society is an “in-group,” however large and how-
It is true, of course, that activists gather always at ever hospitable to newcomers.
the top and try to push society in the direction that Non-discrimination laws effectively tie the hands
they favor, but their getting to the top is not inde- of the indigenous European communities, forbid-
pendent of the fact that they are allowed to get to the ding them from offering privileges to their existing

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Delivered October 13, 2015 

members while permitting every kind of discrimi- was a Greek Orthodox Englishman; and MacMil-
nation among the incoming migrants. It is natu- lan’s most important rival for the ear of Christians
ral for an immigrant family to offer jobs to its own in Britain is John Rutter, who is an Anglican, wed-
members, to discriminate on grounds of race, ethnic ded to the old harmless, half-believing rites of our
group, religion, and (without necessarily mention- national church.
ing this) gender and orientation. Hence, European I mention these people because they exemplify
cities are increasingly places of tightly knit immi- a phenomenon that can be encountered all across
grant communities with fiercely defended territory, Europe, which is the search for the old God of the
from which the fair-minded indigenous inhabitants continent in the sacred buildings, liturgies, and
are excluded because they will not and cannot offer music of our various churches, even and especially
privileges to their kind. among people who don’t set foot in a church on a
Sunday for fear of being trapped into prayer.
Effects of the “Rights Culture” The marks of Christianity have therefore not
We are witnessing, in effect, the removal of the been rubbed out from the high culture of Europe.
old religion that provided foundations to the moral There are still poets, composers, painters, and sculp-
and legal inheritance of Europe and its replace- tors who accept the old role of the artist as the one
ment with a quasi-religion that is inherently foun- who praises God in the name of his fellow human
dationless. Nobody knows how to settle the question beings and who represents their dignity before the
whether this or that privilege, freedom, or claim is throne of the Lord.
a “human right,” and the European Court of Human
Rights is now overwhelmed by a backlog of cases in
which just about every piece of legislation passed by The foundationless idea of human
national parliaments in recent times is at stake. rights leaves the Muslim no alternative
This development has led, however, to a sud-
den burst of Christian nostalgia—not only among
but to dismiss the secular law entirely
the older generation, but among young people too. as an impertinent attempt by human
There are evangelical movements in the cities which beings to usurp a privilege which is
reach out to the young and attempt to include them God’s alone: the privilege of guiding us
in a purified Christian vision. This new evangelism
to our salvation.
is not opposed to the official “rights” culture but
carves out a private space within it—a space where,
taking advantage of the permissions granted by the Another interesting effect of the rights pandem-
secular order, the old discipline can be adopted as a ic is the increasing turn of young Muslims to a fer-
personal cross. vent “Salafist” version of their faith. The rights idea
This privatized Christianity can be found in sur- leaves everything that is most important in the life
prising places. One of them is worth mentioning, of a Muslim without official endorsement: In every-
since it concerns the art form that more than any thing to do with sex, marriage, and the family, in the
other expresses the “Faustian” spirit of Europe as operation of the law, in the division of the day and
Spengler discerned it: namely, music. the hours of work and recreation, the Muslim heart
Following the example of Messiaen in France, a is at odds with the new official Europe.
new generation of composers has emerged eager to Had Christianity retained its status as the foun-
compose liturgical and spiritual music, usually quite dation of domestic custom and public law, it would
difficult music that will be heard only in the concert have been easier for a Muslim to accept the European
hall, but nevertheless music with the old message, order. Our way of life would have seemed like a form
written in defiance of the secular culture. Notable in of obedience and a human adaptation to the will of
Britain is Sir James MacMillan, whose knighthood, God. But the foundationless idea of human rights
recently bestowed, is a sign that this way of reviving leaves the Muslim no alternative but to dismiss the
Christian values does not offend the powers that be. secular law entirely as an impertinent attempt by
MacMillan is a Catholic Scot; his predecessor as the human beings to usurp a privilege which is God’s
voice of Christian music in Britain, Sir John Tavener, alone: the privilege of guiding us to our salvation. We

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Delivered October 13, 2015 

see in the young people eagerly travelling to Syria nn The effect of the EU’s mobility provisions, which
to join ISIS, in the growth of religious schools and have made it impossible for member states either
unofficial shari’a courts, and in the wearing of the to control the movement of people or to affirm
hijab and (where permitted) the niqab and the burqa national loyalty as the sine qua non of residence.
a defiant Islamic culture that refuses to belong to the
European order and which defines itself increasing- Looking back on it, we can see that when the orig-
ly against that order. inal participants signed up to the Treaty of Rome in
One interesting side-effect of this has been the traf- 1954, the idea of free movement of people would have
ficking of vulnerable girls from the infidel community, had no perceivable consequences: The small number
an effect that has been devastating in our English cit- of adjacent member states enjoyed the same pros-
ies. I have touched on this matter in my recent novel pects for employment, housing, welfare, and the rest.
The Disappeared, in which I attempt to show some of Nobody would particularly want to leave unless his
the fault lines between the new Islamized underclass job required it, and there was no dominant language
and the surrounding culture of nothingness. that gave the key to all foreign parts.
Another interesting side-effect of Islamization Now, with the expansion of the Union, that provi-
has been the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. It sion in the treaty has become the cause of massive
was inconceivable in my youth that anyone should disruption: the flight of the educated elite from East-
voice an anti-Semitic sentiment, still more incon- ern Europe, the overwhelming of the welfare sys-
ceivable that he should exhibit violence, contemptu- tems in Western Europe, and the crowding of mil-
ous language, or any kind of assault towards others lions of migrants into Britain and Ireland, the only
on account of their Jewishness. This has changed, European countries where the international lan-
and changed almost overnight. guage is spoken. The most important consequence
Of course, people say that it is all the result of the of this is that if a migrant can make it to any coun-
bad behavior of Israel, but what is now considered try in the Union and somehow (it is never very diffi-
bad behavior is precisely what was cheered on and cult) gain the permission to reside there, he can then
endorsed a decade ago. The real cause of the new migrate to his country of choice.
wave of anti-Semitism is the growing self-confidence
and numbers of the Muslim minority—a fact that
you cannot publicly declare in Britain, still less in The current problem of mass
France or Belgium, for fear of provoking the charge migration was created by the European
of Islamophobia and even the threat of legal action.
So much for the rights culture, which displays its
Union and by the destructive attempt
foundationless character precisely in this matter for to govern a continent by a treaty,
which it should put itself aggressively on display. It bypassing the legislatures of all
is precisely the advocates of human rights as a social signatory states.
panacea who are the most ardent in seeking excuses
for anti-Semitism.
The result for us in Britain is the breakdown of our
External Threats to Europe welfare system; the destructive overloading of our
Mass Migration. This brings me to the exter- infrastructure; the collapse of a precious planning
nal threats to Europe, the one explicit and obvi- system that had served to keep the country looking
ous, which is mass migration, the other implicit and roughly as it had always done during all the decades
insinuating, which is the growing military readiness since the Second World War; and, last but by no means
of Russia. The migration problem has been exacer- least, the total destruction of our state schools, in
bated by three factors: which city teachers have to teach classes of children
for whom English is at best a second language and in
nn The instability and violence in Africa and the which topics like national history, English literature,
Middle East; Christian scripture, Latin, and music appreciation
have next to no meaning even though they are, or were,
nn The welfare culture of European nations; and the foundation of everything that England once was.

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That this problem has been exacerbated by the given the failure of the European leadership to
EU is an understatement. It was created by the EU understand the need for it.
and by the destructive attempt to govern a continent Having seized parts of Georgia, Crimea, and East-
by a treaty, bypassing the legislatures of all signato- ern Ukraine without any real cost, other than sanc-
ry states. A treaty can be amended only by a labori- tions that mean as little as such sanctions always
ous process and only assuming the consent of all the do, Putin is beginning to probe NATO defense lines
original signatories. It cannot by its nature adapt to in the Baltic States and Eastern Poland. The farci-
changes that occur with the rapidity of wars, natural cal peace treaty in Ukraine, negotiated by German
disasters, and mass migrations. Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande
There is no way, in my view, that the EU could in Minsk, shows exactly how pointless in such cir-
now adapt to the inflow of unwanted migrants, and it cumstances is diplomacy not backed by the threat of
therefore responds by pretending that the migrants force. In every way, Putin is being presented with the
are really wanted, that inward migration is an eco- image of Europe as a military pushover and respond-
nomic benefit, and that no other factor needs to be ing accordingly.
considered. This is the message sent out to the world
by the German political class, and the extraordinary
fact is that it comes from a nation that once destroyed Vladimir Putin has understood that the
Europe in the name of its own search for Lebensraum. outer borders of Europe are porous
All of Europe is now waiting for the politicians to
come up with a policy that will solve or at least ease the
and that the withdrawal of American
migration problem, but because the EU is construed interest is now more or less inevitable,
as a business deal—though a merger rather than (as given the failure of the European
for Napoleon and Hitler) an acquisition—it cannot leadership to understand the need for it.
address the cause of the problem. People are migrat-
ing into Europe because conditions are intolerable in
much of the Middle East and because there is no cost, Of course, the Russian elite won’t want to bomb
but only gain, for those engaged in people trafficking. London, since they own it (another consequence
Had the EU taken the form of a military alliance of the EU, which has made land and buildings into
rather than a social and economic merger, it would property that aliens as well as citizens can buy and
perhaps have been able to respond to ISIS, to the sell). However, it seems that the Russian army’s stra-
breakdown of order in Libya, and to the situation tegic planning has shifted ominously from escala-
in Iraq. For these are, for European civilization, tion to de-escalation as the central strand (so I learn
military issues, to be solved in the end by force. But from contacts in Polish intelligence). In other words,
without American leadership, which vanished with not invasion followed by the threat of a nuclear bomb,
the election of President Barack Obama, Europe is but a nuclear bomb followed by occupation.
unable to involve itself in policing those parts of the
world that are exporting their chaos to Europe. Importance of National Sentiment
The failure of Europe in this matter illustrates and Local Attachments
the application of the second law of thermodynam- All in all, taking the external and the internal
ics. Entropy is always increasing but can be made to threats together, it is difficult to be cheerful about
decrease within a closed system. The active policy the future of European civilization. However, what
of the EU, which has been to dissolve borders and I have said is not the end of the story by any means.
renounce the use of force, has created an open sys- There are signs that people in Eastern Europe,
tem without the resources to counter the entropy and in the Baltic States especially, are seriously
pouring in from outside. concerned about Russian ambitions, and there are
Confrontation with Russia. The same weak- some of them who do not take this as just another
ness is manifest in the confrontation with Russia. reason to flee to London. There is a growing aware-
Vladimir Putin has understood that the outer bor- ness in the European political class that if mass
ders of Europe are porous and that the withdrawal migration is not brought under control, Britain and
of American interest is now more or less inevitable, perhaps other Northern countries will withdraw

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from the Union, which will in all probability col- Paterson, who speak directly to both young and old
lapse in consequence. in a language that also recuperates our past.
For there to be a successful turnaround in Even popular culture is moving in the same
confronting these two external threats, however, direction, trying as best it can to recapture the sense
there must also be a rebirth of national sentiment of belonging and enchantment, as in the film epics
and local attachments. So far, the foundationless of Harry Potter, Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings.
ideology of rights has wiped away the emotions I don’t say that these blockbuster movies are great
that would be needed if people are to be resolute works of art, but they are not repudiations of our civ-
in defense of their shared assets. We see at every ilization either. In fact, they are affirmations which
level the retreat from confrontation, the embar- convey confused but real guidance to young people
rassed refusal to affirm our patrimony or its legiti- concerning the values that made them what they are.
mate claim for sacrifice. The only first-person plu-
ral that is officially allowed is that of Europe itself, Lessons for America
though it is a “we” that few people now understand There are lessons in this for America. The threats
and which has in any case been bowdlerized by the confronting Europe confront America too: mass
political elite. immigration of people whose loyalty cannot be guar-
anteed or who may, like the Boston bombers, see
the host society as the devil’s work; the purging of
The foundationless ideology of rights Christian assumptions from the law and the public
has wiped away the emotions that square and the replacement of them by the contra-
dictory panacea of human rights; the unwillingness
would be needed if people are to be to confront threats while they can still be confront-
resolute in defense of their shared ed—notably the threats posed by Russia and China.
assets. We see at every level the But there is one thing that Americans have which
embarrassed refusal to affirm our we Europeans lack: namely, a sense of shared iden-
tity, of being included together in an enterprise the
patrimony or its legitimate claim rewards of which and the costs of which are distrib-
for sacrifice. uted among us all. This sense of identity depends
upon borders. It depends upon a law defined by terri-
But we also see, here and there, the signs of social tory and human procedures rather than by God. And
and cultural renewal. During the 19th century, it depends on the idea of the nation.
many Europeans thought they could compensate for Looking at Europe and at what follows when the
the decline of the Christian faith by attaching them- political class loses all sight of that idea, Americans
selves to ideologies: socialism, nationalism, commu- should recognize how lucky they are and how they
nism, Marxism. The rights panacea is the latest of must at all costs hold onto the belief in themselves
these, but we know or ought to know that it does not as one nation. And if they add to that phrase the
work. It is only by reconnecting with our true inheri- two words “under God,” they will be on the way to
tance that we can develop the kind of first-person protecting the principal thing that we Europeans
plural that will enable us to stand together against have lost.
the growing threats to us. It is not difficult for Americans to learn that les-
I mentioned the encouraging examples set by son. In every crisis, they stand together as a nation,
English composers in recent years. I could mention and the tradition of charitable giving is as strong
the movement of Catholic youth in Italy around the here as it ever was. It is well known that Americans
Rimini meetings established by Father Giussani. I give more per capita to charitable causes than the
could mention the reaction in France—confused as people of any other country, and even if you complain
yet and unfocused—to the recent Islamist atroci- that 2 percent of GDP is not much, it compares inter-
ties. I could mention the extraordinary rebirth of estingly with the 0.2 percent of France and the less
representational painting around the work of Odd than 0.1 percent of Germany. Of course, in France
Nerdrum in Norway and the emergence in Britain of and Germany, the state looks after those in need, but
poets, such as Ruth Padel, John Burnside, and Don that is exactly the European problem: namely, that

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the state has grown to replace the bonds of civil soci- This was not always so. Americans in the 19th
ety and little by little to extinguish them. and early 20th centuries wanted their cities to emu-
This goes hand in hand with a decline in national late those of Europe. Architecture was properly
feeling—indeed, in the case of Germany, with a repu- taught according to the beaux-arts tradition in the
diation of national feeling among the political elite, American schools, and city fathers were keen to lay
which treads the world with exquisite softness for out streets, parks, and city centers as public domains
fear of the Nazi shadow that creeps along behind. in which all residents have an interest. Look at the
Learning to value your nation as a symbol of your photographs of New York at the beginning of the
togetherness in a shared land is, in my view, the way 20th century, or the Chicago of Louis Sullivan, and
forward for all who would live as citizens. It is what you will see beautiful townscapes and facades, pub-
has disappeared from the Middle East and what lic spaces and genial details that match in every way
is now under threat in Europe, but it is not under the great achievement of Europe.
threat here, and long may that continue. Of course, American architects are as greedy as
their European counterparts and have no qualms
in destroying environments if there is money to be
Americans should recognize how lucky made in doing so, but the result is not appreciated
they are and how they must at all costs by the people, as is shown by the fact that, while no
educated American would go to Detroit, Tampa, or
hold onto the belief in themselves as Houston for a holiday, almost all want to visit Flor-
one nation. And if they add to that ence, Paris, or Rome. So here is one particular in
phrase the two words “under God,” which America can learn from Europe—and indeed,
they will be on the way to protecting with the New Urbanism movement, is beginning to
do so. But it will require strength of will to resist the
the principal thing that we Europeans corporate interests and the ideological fantasies of
have lost. the schools of architecture.
A new revolution from below is needed here, and it
This brings me to a point in which Europe has should model itself on the long-standing revolution
the edge on America, which is the innate respect of from below that we have had in England and which I
Europeans for their aesthetic inheritance. Our land- document in my book How to Think Seriously About
scapes and townscapes are dear to us and have been the Planet. We in England have taken possession of
protected through all the destruction wrought by our landscape and townscape and said “no” to those
two world wars to survive as symbols of our long- who want to make it unrecognizable as a human
standing settlement. habitat. The habit of saying “no” to new things goes
America is a new country, whose planning laws against the grain for most Americans, but some noes
arose from the need to build quickly and, when the are also yeses, and this is especially true of those
opportunity arose, move on. As a result, the country said on behalf of a loved inheritance and a symbol of
is now encumbered with vast urban wastelands like what we are.
Detroit. Very few American cities have a center where —Roger Scruton is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics
anyone wants to reside, and all of them have begun and Public Policy Center and a contributing editor of
to spread like a fungus over the landscape, forcing The New Atlantis. He is the author of over 30 books on
people to depend on fossil fuels and hours behind a variety of topics including How to Be a Conservative,
the wheel for the basic needs of life. There is a kind of The Meaning of Conservatism, and An Intelligent
loneliness that advances with the suburbs as closely Person’s Guide to Modern Culture.
knit communities are replaced with people too com-
fortable in their boxes to have much need of neighbors.