I am still working on my “Decline and Fall of Western Civilization” article that I mentioned in my February article, but as I have been writing the article several large themes have emerged which deserve the full attention of a separate article because I know the large majority of readers have an actual stake in the future by having children, grandchildren, or even hope to be married someday, so this article needed to be written as a preface to how to prepare for the collapse of Western Civilization. As I mentioned in July 2025, “We are probably in the opening stages of the Third World War.” Events that are occurring in the flashpoints of the Middle East and Asia will most likely decide the direction of the world in the next decades of the 21st Century as the 20th Century was dominated by the results of the Second World War. Many readers here have children and grandchildren and are rightly concerned about their future. I encourage you to send the link to this article to people you know with children to get the word out to even people who are not regular readers as it might help to turn our country around.
Bottom Line Up Front: Their future is not good. This is one of the worst times to be a young person, but there are certain steps you can take as a parent or grandparent to make your children or grandchildren’s future better and even your future better!
The article is part of my series trying to revitalize the nation through encouraging a return to Biblical roots, so consider it to be a Gedankenexperiment, not a form of advice, but an extended thought experiment.
When I was writing my “Civilization” article, I sketched out several large themes that are causing the decline of Western Civilization. One of the items in my list that I originally was considering is the decline in marriage and morality in our country. Originally, this idea was going to receive a few paragraphs as part of the larger discussion. Over the days when I was writing, each day I felt a little nudge which gradually grew. If you have ever experienced a wind at your back or a tailwind for pilots, then you will know the feeling. I prayed about this extensively and over the course of days I continued to be guided to write more about this because the linchpin of our civilization is people and future generations. There is a saying, “no farms, no food,” but more importantly: “no farmers, no farms.” You may be wondering how “Single Farmer” is qualified to write about this because my name has an element of failure in it in that I have never been able to upgrade it to “Newlywed Farmer.” You can learn a lot from failure and from the success of others, and for some reason God has continued to give me the strength to write after so much failure and disappointment.
For much of history, the future is simply a continuation of the past. The 2020s are shaping up to be one of the most consequential decades in American history. You are living through history whose consequences will reach deep into the future. We will look at a couple of time periods where great change and a previous golden age occurred. The last “golden age” in recent memory for some senior readers was in the 1950s. I have only been able to read about it, watch movies, newsreel clips, and talk to people about the exuberance of the age where the United States was a growing country full of youth and optimism.
For those who today struggle with their utility bills, in the 1950s electricity was on the cusp of being “too cheap to meter.” The cities worked and were not filled with tents and uncollected trash. In JWR’s novel Patriots, there is a glimpse into this age:
“The men who had planned the interstate highway system in the 1940s and 1950s could not be blamed. At that time, downtown areas were still flourishing. They were the heart of industry, population, commerce, and wealth. Thus, it was only logical that the highways should be routed as close to them as possible, and preferably through them. These planners could not then have predicted that in fifty years the term ‘inner city’ would become synonymous with poverty, welfare, drugs, disease, and rampant crime.”
The 1950s were a time of growth and wholesomeness where sock hops and soda fountains were cultural touchstones. The idea that in 75 years it would be necessary to write articles encouraging the continuation of the culture and revitalization of the American Dream would be unthinkable.
Unfortunately, I am still single and I cannot find a “time machine” to get back to the 1950s or some other better time in American History when regular Americans could work hard, often be rewarded with lifetime job security including a pension and most importantly to be able to get married and have a family. The comment on a time machine of course is in jest because as Christians we are born into a specific time for a specific purpose, so even if I could find a time machine I should not take the journey. This is not a great time, but it was chosen for us, so we must make the best of the resources we currently have. One resource is to learn from history. I have conducted many interviews with people who were alive from the early 1900s and even 1800s forward about various eras they experienced in American and world history. The last official person to be alive in the 1800s died less than ten years ago.
You are currently living in one of the worst, most destructive periods in American History in terms of economics, morality, and family formation. You may be thinking about the Great Depression period from 1929 to 1941. Yes, it was economically difficult during the Great Depression with about 25 percent of men unemployed, but morality was still overall intact. People were still largely getting married, having families, and planning for a better future. Boys were boys and girls were girls: Back then, boys would have been repulsed at the accusation of acting effeminate (getting called a “sissy” was an insult) and girls were encouraged to be ladylike. Hindsight is 20/20 and we know now that the lowest period in the Great Depression was in July 1932. People back then did not know and there was real fear that it was getting worse when it is actually reached its low and was improving from that point forward. I know of people who are still alive who were born in 1932 and before, so some of the lessons of their lives have helped to shape my worldview.
Marriage rates back in 1932 declined to 7.9 per 1000 people. The high historic rate for marriages was in 1920 at 12 marriages per 1000 people. One of the people who I interviewed was then a very elderly woman who talked about what life was like then “when the boys came back.” The entire cohort of veterans of this time is gone with their final departure around 2011 with then younger people having memories of this time now almost all gone. She was referring to her then future husband, brothers, and their friends who were part of the cohort of men who went off to the “Great War” (The First World War was then also thought to be the “War to End All Wars,” so it also had that title) were returning to the homefront and wanted to put the horrors of trench warfare behind them and move forward with living. Now, marriage rates are expected to decline to 5.8 per 1,000 people. We are living in a time of great change with worse conditions than even during what was then the worse economic downturn in American history, so the average parent or grandparent faces tremendous headwinds in steering your children or grandchildren to the right direction.
Nowadays, a lot of people talk about having a vision as a prerequisite (something that must come before) to achieve success. There is a Biblical root to this concept: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Those are very strong words evoking images of death and destruction. Applying what Proverbs says without a vision, you will likely be tossed here and there. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians teaches us “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (4:4). Think of the analogy of yourself and your family as a boat where without proper trimming of sails, steering, and other principles of seamanship, you will be tossed around and could end up capsized or battered upon some rocky shore. Currently, if you do nothing, you are likely not to achieve true success and the best life you can create for your family with the life God has given you.
The first line of defense for the difficulties ahead is prayer. You should be praying mightily and often. Prayer is first, but then action must occur.
I encourage people to have a vision and share it. My vision is one of a Rural Rebirth which would signal a renaissance of resettlement and revitalization. I have a vision of rural areas becoming places where a growing population thrives and leads this country back to its original values. Don’t just dream, but do as the world is full of dreamers who never accomplish anything. I put my money and time on this vision: I have set aside 50 thousand dollars for success in this area as outlined above and I have put over ten thousand hours into this vision.
You may wonder how anyone could attempt to rebuild something that has been broken for so long where immorality is pervasive, abortion is openly celebrated, marriage has become a joke, birth rates are falling below replacement, and our currency has been depreciating for decades. This could be turned around in one generation, but it takes people today to step forward and begin the work of rebuilding.
It is my sincere hope that there are families out there somewhere either in the United States or around the world who share a vision of saving Western Civilization. Some people may say what can one man or one family do. Just a small percentage can change the world. It has been said many times that only a very small percentage of the American colonists actively fought in the American Revolution. People can endlessly quibble about statistics about how many fought especially after a war more people wished to be have been on the winning side, but there are records of officer commissions, pensions, and other records for those who wish to prove their relative’s actual service. Few people were there from the earliest stages and stayed to the conclusion. It was not a gigantic number especially at some points such as at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 where the patriotism of “Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots” was frostbitten in the Pennsylvania winter and where George Washington lost a quarter of his small army who died that winter. I am lineally descended from multiple men who showed up and fought for the freedom that is now and has been squandered.
My family risked everything for the Independence of what eventually became the United States. If they would have lost, their future would have likely been a short rope and a tall tree, gallows, or a firing squad. One of my Revolutionary era grandfathers gave his life for the defense of this freedom many now treat as rubbish. Only because we ended up on the winning side were he and other “rebels” vindicated in the history books and still today people visit memorials that are dedicated to his sacrifice for our freedom (at least the memorials were not torn down or renamed unlike some of my other relatives of the Confederate era).
My vision is of a rebirth of our country and it begins with family formation. Family formation is the cornerstone of our civilization. Our country is economically suffering with so many families unable to achieve the American Dream. Besides the resources I have set aside, it is my intention to be able to help my future wife’s family as they may not be a family who owns a productive farm and has more than three generations of survival experience. My assistance may extend to helping a future father-in-law or brothers-in-law with finding work if we do not have enough work here on our farm for them. If a family has been praying for a golden opportunity to be able to move to a safe area after a marriage, this may be an answer to a mutual prayer.
The people who either have young children now or who will have them in the near future will form the leaders of this next generation rebuilding the American Dream. After prayer, preparation must follow. God has given you the ability to plan and the steps will outline in the following days have worked previously throughout history. This is a well-traveled road that has countless successes on it. The current road most families have detoured onto is full of hazards and most people who are taking it are often finding out too late that it does not lead to success.
People often think they can survive on their own over the long-term. This is a very dangerous mindset. It is much easier to survive in a rural, lightly-populated region within a conservative community surrounded by like-minded families. After the basics of air, water, sanitation, and food are handled, family and then community are critical components. Things that are impossible with one are often possible with two or more people.
Have you ever wondered why society is falling apart and what you can do about it? It begins with rethinking of how we define and achieve success especially at the family level. Readers are right to be concerned about the future and especially for future generations. Decisions that are made today can have the potential to be able to positively impact future generations. This begins with preparing which is a multi-step process. As the process of preparations for daughters is much easier than sons, we will start to consider how to prepare daughters.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)
Read the full article here