Why civilization is worth preserving

I can think of many reasons:

The Internet - Without the online world, life would simply not be possible, or as fulfilling. Blogging is the antidote to loneliness. Not a replacement, but a reasonably ersatz comfort nevertheless.

Computerized mapping - Google Earth, Live Maps, etc. Marvel of the space age!

Classic automobiles - Before they were just land consumptive and city destroying machines, automobiles had grace and class. (That's why they're called 'classic'.) Of course they were those other things, too.

Bobby Womack - he is the man!

The Apartment - a great film from 1960 which I happened to watch again last weekend, and found it to be a better film than I had remembered. Though most people think it is a comedy, it is actually a well-crafted drama with some light moments, which succinctly demonstrates what it means to be alone and screwed by the powerful in the big city.

The freeway - I know, this is the enabler of the entire false paradise of suburbia, fueled by petrochemicals and mass ignorance of what makes life worth living. But as engineering marvels, they cannot be surpassed. I hear that the Katy Freeway expansion in Houston is wrapping up. Look on it gently, as this will be the last freeway expansion in history - ever. No sooner than its 14 glorious lanes of concrete open, that the automobile will be a device consigned only to museums.

The blues - Without the blues, music would not exist.

Soul Train - Peace, love, and SOUL!!!

Louisiana cuisine - Poboys, seafood, boudin, red beans and rice, etoufee...these are the staples of my diet.

South Park - But of course...

And many other things.

Do what you can, in these dark times, to preserve as much of Western civilization as individually possible. For all its problems and its fundamental flaws, there is much about it which remains fulfilling and uplifting. Certainly it beats the life of a cannibal caveman.

Not all of it was bad. Tell that to Ward Churchill and his ideological flunkies.