we're in trouble

It's a small story, but it shows us that a big problem is coming.

We can look at abstract numbers, we can look at news reports, we can look at all of these things... but unless we have experience with people, in person, you don't get it.

I went for a hike. It was a warm, breezy day; very nice.

As I was returning home, I stopped to get gas, as you do.

The Hispanic man sitting in the car in the pump next to mind threw some trash out of the window.

I wish I had recorded it. In these days of everything being recorded, you think I'd have thought of that, but no...

In any event, I picked up the trash, told the man that he needs to be throwing trash out into the trash can.

"It's not a big deal."

"It's our culture."

"Why don't you mind your own business?"

"How about you mind your own business by throwing your trash away?"

Okay--not the best retort.

The rest of our interaction was me catching him staring at me in a mixture of disbelief and hostility.

Yeah... how dare I demand that some foreigner conform to our culture?

Oh, I know... I know. Our culture has been gutted by postmodernism (among other things), and we've only barely just begun to stand up to the century-long erosion of our values. The victory will go to the one who does what the other just won't do--and I'm not sure the will of the West exists sometimes.

He obviously didn't care. He just threw it out of his window. He's probably done that dozens of times, and nobody has said anything.

If people had been pushing back on these things as they occurred, we might not be here today.

It may well be far too late for such small gestures. Just imagine if people just stopped putting up with all of it?

That's why I'm saying we're in trouble. It would not take long at all for there to be physical confrontation, because there are a whole hell of a lot of things far more egregious going on than some asshole littering.

It is a cultural war. It's also very closely related to race.

This is not the fight I would have chosen... but victory will go to the group that does what the other group just won't do.

For now, Europeans are losing.

But we don't have to.