>>1152
I wouldn't sum it up like this, no
At least for Europe i believe like many here that the downfall happened with the enlightenment and its progressive insertion and radicalization in our societal fabric
So, if we really want someone to blame i would look for the nation that embodies such ideas and more than anybody else worked to propagate and impose them on us, and that is, the United States of America
We are used to think of Europe and America as colsed friends, but that is far from historical truth, Ever since the first settlements the colonists grew a profound resentment for the monarchy and everything else that reminded them that old continent they hated so much they so desperately wanted to escape it
As such, the American Revolution was notoriously heavily drenched in the ideas of the enlightenment, and the newly formed american republic served as an example to imitate to all those who shared these sentiments back here in Europe, as well as a sign that a similar thing was possible in our countries too
It's not a secret either that the French Revolution was also heavily influenced by what the Americans did a few years earlier, some people like La Fayette even fought in both occasions
I think it's not too farfetched to say that the French Revolution was the first step to the americanization of Europe
And so, the propagation of the revolutionary principles and the perception of America as a model republic easily spread through all Europe, as we started murdering our kings, desecrating our churches and spitting on our ancestors in an attempt to resemble more and more that shiny new ideal country overseas, until eventually the americans themselves stepped in, starting with Woodrow Wilson, and began actively meddling in our affairs and push their way of life unto us
In fact, they went on meddling in our affairs so much that in WW2 they placed their bases in our countries and never left, making us de facto militarily occupied dominions
And i don't think i need to explain how damaging this dominion has been in the last 70 years, making degenerate hedonistic capitalism the only alternative to the marxist hell during the Cold War, and slowly shaping our culture to their image. And let's not even talk about how the cancerous '68 rioter movement came from America and invested first France and then the rest of Europe once again
Even the current fetishization of multiculturalism you are so worried about is at least partially a consequence of this americanization, everytime i hear a pro-multiculti argument that might have some ground in America applied to an european country ("We were always a nation of immigrants", "There so such thing as a native X" etc.) i cringe hard
So there you have it, if i said this in /pol/ everyone would probably freak out and screetch something about "D&C shill", but i don't care anymore, i grew past that, if you asked me to sum it up very briefly and simplisticly, i would say that the decay of european culture and institutions is determined by its constant struggle to try to resemble more and more the United States of America, a way of life that is alien and and unnatural to us, but having our minds more and more poisoned by shallow pop culture and trashy Hollywood movies we find it harder and harder to see
That is of course if we truly want to find a specific country or group of people to blame. Otherwise i'd be just as glad to blame it all on the sole ideology of the enlightenment and its thinkers, which i do recognize with sadness were all europeans, and all that descended from it, and consider the american people just as much of a victim as the europeans, only unable to see it for lack of history prior to that period
>>1183
Ugh
Anon, i do understand OP was kind of abrasive, but using Wikipedia as a rebuttal is probably not the best way to go about it
If you're truly interested in this topic i suggest you read 200 Years Together by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which despite what you may have heard from either side is actually a very fair and balanced report on the topic