Stealing from the title of the classic work, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, we ask a simple question:  How will liberalism survive when it has to pay its own freight?

Can anyone seriously argue the fact that liberalism has grown out of the prosperous nations of the West?  It is the offshoot of Western Europe and the United States.  It does no good to point to the fact that most non-Westerners support leftist political parties or vote for socialist programs.  They are voting for their direct interest, as they see it.  Likewise for the large Jewish presence in every leftist organization.  How can we separate the self interest involved there from true principle?  Again, the Jewish people see themselves as a small minority whose best security comes from a broadly multi-cultural society with no dominant majority.  Hence the hard left bias found among them as a group.

Only Western Europeans and their cousins in North America and Australia and New Zealand, and even in South Africa, meet Kant’s standard for truly ethical behavior.  Only they can point to the large sacrifice that they have made, counter to their own interests.  Now that their success in cutting off their future is almost complete, how will we maintain liberalism?

This is a question that deserves serious thought from those who want to see truth and justice prevail.  The decision to open up the former West to the neglected “third world” will alter the current equation dramatically.  Do we keep the flow up until we achieve an equilibrium of wealth across the face of the globe?  If so, we’ve got a long way to go down here in the West. 

This is yet another question that demands moral courage from the new generation of leaders we must develop.  We can’t run from the issue like the Sierra Club did from the issue of immigration and its effect on the environment.  Surely the hubris of the current adminstration is no model for us to follow.

Keep this simple question in mind as we prepare for the upcoming three ring circus known as politics.  But don’t hold your breath waiting for an intelligent or courageous answer.