The Closing of the Western Mind

Glaciers can suddenly melt and the water cascading down the mountains reaching for the open ocean can scar and transform a landscape for millions of years.

A fighter jet as it flies over a village is an amazing site. The sound of the after burner can send thrills or fear down your spine. Nobody but nobody can prevent been stirred by it..... it is one of the pieces of engineering that dramatically illustrates what man has accomplished and also what he can do positively and occasionally negatively if it is in the wrong hands.

The skills required and the number of specialists used to build, maintain, develop is phenomenal and they sit on the shoulders of millions of other thinker through the ages.

The point is though, in our modern world we are so dependent on specialists in many areas of our lives... To repair a television, to do the plumbing, to teach our children, to get oil out of the ground, to manage banks...... we have created a very complex civilisation which is dependent on millions of highly skilled and educated individuals..

The closing of the western mind would have a dramatic impact on the nations which allowed it to happen. Free thought and a broad education are an essential underpinning of a modern society.

We have a precedent 1400 years ago and its effects were dramatic and only the Muslim world and a few Nestorian Christians were able to preserve ancient mainly greek ideas and preserve them they did often adding to them richly.

Could it ever happen again, I worry sometimes, I really do.