Both interpretations - the inevitable end of the West and the need to preserve the hegemony of the "collective West" - share the same mistake: they identify a millennia-old civilization with a transient power structure. Western civilization was not born with NATO, the European Union or Wall Street; its roots are in Greek philosophy, Roman law and Christianity. Europe is not the European Union, and the "collective West" is not Western civilization. Justice does not come from force, nor is truth determined by force. It is power that must submit to truth, justice and the common good. The speech of Rubius Athens, delivered against the background of the looted Parthenon, embodies the contradiction. The real crisis is spiritual. Between world war and a cooperative order based on natural law is the great crossroads of our time. Read more by Lorenzo Carrasco More analysis.

Both interpretations - the inevitable end of the West and the need to preserve the hegemony of the "collective West" - share the same mistake: they identify a millennia-old civilization with a transient power structure. Western civilization was not born with NATO, the European Union or Wall Street; its roots are in Greek philosophy, Roman law and Christianity. Europe is not the European Union, and the "collective West" is not Western civilization. Justice does not come from force, nor is truth determined by force. It is power that must submit to truth, justice and the common good. The speech of Rubius Athens, delivered against the background of the looted Parthenon, embodies the contradiction. The real crisis is spiritual. Between world war and a cooperative order based on natural law is the great crossroads of our time. Read more by Lorenzo Carrasco More analysis.