Yes! Counterintuitive Man looks at the end of the world, no?

Al Gore says the world will end in fire.

When I grew up they told me ice.

Will Muslims destroy Western Civilization out of religious desire?

I'll vote for ice or fire.

See The Great Global Warming Swindle on YouTube.

History teaches us: The human condition includes declaring that the world is about to end.

A friend at lunch recently confessed a sense of loss that this great country, and the monumental human achievements we've introduced to the planet -- freedom, self rule, rule of law, individual rights, free markets, wealth and abundance for the common citizen beyond anything previously imagined -- was nearing loss, and how, pray tell, would we ever recreate the unique circumstances that generated it all? Such a crushing sense of loss.

I imagine the Greeks felt the same as their ascendancy declined. The Roman Republic felt it as the Roman Empire took control, and the citizens of the Empire felt it as society became increasingly debauched and unworthy.

The folks caught by birth in the Byzantine and Dark Ages maybe didn't care much, who cares, but Western Civilization from the Rennaisance through the height of the British Empire had to endure the frightful loss of their position over time. Well, the French maybe haven't realized it yet, but they've fallen from their pinnacle too.

And maybe now it's our turn. We've made our contributions, peaked probably somewhere around Leave It To Beaver and had our death gasps with the Sixties  hippies through the Millennium. The future will build on what we did, take some, leave some, become the next best thing. Maybe we'll imitate France for a while, believing our past defines our future.

It must have been hard on the Greeks and Romans living through their post-peak plateau to watch it slip away. That rush of ascendancy we all know today -- as opulence increased, markets grew, the arts flourished, innovation was everywhere.

It must have been like what some of us see and feel -- desperate attachment to what was, grudging recognition of the impending fall, refusal by some, self-deprecation by others, emphasis on the faults and the we-deserve-to-die mantra.

Not to worry, our run isn't done, and be proud -- we've built a legacy humanity will savor for millenia. Your kids and their kids kids will inherit our wind. Momentum alone will carry us for a good while.

China seems like the next big thing, the place where mucho smart money will gravitate. Even if the Muslims establish their caliphate, push Western Civilization away, build Eurabia and destroy all those cool buildings in Holland and France, destroy what they can of the music, theater, literature, art, while chasing their own closed primitive theocracy, China is on the cusp of kicking some serious butt.

A critical balance between the tyrannical dictators of the olden communist Empire will succumb to the luxuries and opulence of the free markets they're building, a good thing. Alternative power structures based on industry, intellect, finance, capital, markets, goods and services will force and entice the tyrants to the fold, bribe them with pleasures of the flesh and mind, relieve them of the need to act tyrannically as their every whim is fulfilled by a culture burgeoning with good stuff. It's their turn. It's OK. Life is good.

Tags: global warming, Greece, Western Civilization, Rome