Outlook

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels recently said something very wise: If he could grant every American child one wish it would be to be raised in a two-parent home. A huge body of literature points to the cost to children of being raised by a single parent who is divorced or far worse was never married. Such children are far more likely to be poor to drop out of high school to experience psychological and behavioral problems and to themselves become single parents.

Daniels was not lamenting just the individual tragedy but the societal repercussions as well. With 40 percent of all children — and 70 percent of black children — beginning life without a father on the scene the United States is well on its way to creating a permanent and growing underclass of people who will be left behind by technological advance.

The above is just one example of the impact of the quality of the citizenry on national fortunes. History demonstrates that national character is often far more decisive than natural resources or other measures of national power in determining a nation’s future. Israel for instance has flourished despite lacking any significant natural resources (or at least so we thought until very recently) while being surrounded by some of the nations most richly endowed with natural resources in which the majority of the population remains stuck in grinding poverty.

Gibbon attributed the fall of the Roman Empire to the decline in the quality of Rome’s citizens. And today we are witnessing European civilization again threatened by hard and ruthless barbarians at the gates. In long-term conflicts Daniel Pipes has written regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict it is not economic power nor even military power that usually proves decisive but the will of the two sides and their belief in the justice of their cause and eventual triumph.