Could we, in reality, have done otherwise? Could I, as a novelist,rnhave done otherwise? I drew no conclusions from this story.rnIt was not my role. I had the idea for this book one day at myrnhome in the south of France, one early morning when I wasrncontemplating the sea. I said to myself and what iithey arrive?rnAnd I saw them arriving. And the whole book followed on fromrnthere. It is a story which I told to myself and not a theory onrnwhich I elaborated. Which is why I thereafter refused to explainrnmyself Any explanation was impossible.rnLet me add that The Camp of the Saints has been continuallyrnreprinted in France because it was first published in 1973.rnHowever, if it had been published in 1997 for the first time, itrnwould have fallen foul of France’s new political correctnessrnlaws. The very word invasion, for example, when applied to situationsrnof noncontrolled immigration, is now condemned inrnthe French courts.rnAnd perhaps that brings us back to the values of our civilization,rn”the best values of our civiUzation.” It is the possessive adjectivern”our,” emphasizing a shared possession, which immediatelyrnsprang to my attention. In the basic declaration of thernpurposes of The Ingersoll Foundation, its president, Mr. JohnrnHoward, whom I would also like to thank today, speaks of thernideals of Western civilization. We can therefore conclude fromrnMr. Howard’s statement, and I naturally agree with him, thatrnthe United States and France are part of the same civilization.rnWestern civilization, and defend the same values, the values ofrnour civilization. Believe me when I tell you that I too see thereinrnthe only guarantee of a stable world.rnPerhaps we should look into this a little more closely. If ourrncountries have indeed affirmed, up until the recent past, thernsame values of civilization, of our civilization, I sometimes askrnmyself if the situation is not somewhat different today. Is it notrnrather new social values which are typically American, resultingrnfrom dynamism and unequaled power, from Americanrnwealth and certitudes, aided by a language which has becomernAre You a Memberrnof The Rockford Institute ?rnWouldn’t you like to knowrnwhat Chronicles editors dornwhen they’re not writingrnfor Chroniclesl For a tax-deductiblernmembership donation of $25, you willrnreceive the Institute’s quarterlyrnpublication, Main Street Memorandum,rnyour source for all the hard-hittingrncommentary and Rockford Instituternnews that can’t fit in the pages ofrnChronicles. To join, send a check forrn$25 to:rn^rnTRI Membershiprn928 North Main StreetrnRockford, IL 61103rn/rnthe only universal language, and by an unchallenged dominationrnof the new means of communication, which could become,rnfor better or worse, the only representative of our Westernrncivilization? In France and in Europe, believing that wernare cultivating and defending the values of Western society, werncould ask ourselves: Are we not in reality sustaining and defendingrnvalues which are primarily American?rnI do not at all want to be offensive in reminding you of thernobservation of Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840 on the possibilityrnof American democratic totalitarianism. At the time Tocquevillernwas writing, the population of the United States wasrnstill small, barely reaching beyond the Mississippi, and his visionrnconcerned only the Americans. Today, as the recent phenomenonrnof globalization spreads like a tidal wave, fed by irresistiblernAmerican expansion, I wonder what he would writerntoday. I am convinced that the United States did not intend itrnto be so, but this inevitable globalization, which first overtookrnthe old divided world of Europe, is naturally modeled upon thernmost powerful and dynamic nation in the West, the UnitedrnStates. The game is one-sided.rnI am French, and I can already see the effects of Americanstv’lernglobalization which, unchallenged, is so profoundly affectingrnmy country. Unlike the Irish, Italians, Germans, English,rnPoles, Greeks, etc., we do not have in the United States arnFrench community which emigrated here in the past or in recentrntimes which can represent here the continuation of ourrnold culture. Through the cinema, the television, the mimetismrnof the young, not forgetting political correctness, millions andrnmillions of French are already steeped in a kind of banal morassrnof American popular culture. At the same time, with the exceptionrnof a small cultured elite, the majority of the populationrnof the United States is no longer interested in France. It wouldrnseem that its ignorance about us and indifference to us has becomerntotal. This imbalance could be dangerous in the longrnterm.rnHappily, a remedy exists. All we need is to keep one importantrnthing in mind. The United States, Europe, France, and arnfew other countries are by their very nature inseparable, as theyrnare part of the same Western civilization. If it is still allowed tornsay so, witliout offending anyone, this Western civilization wasrnmade by the white race. It has even been called the whiternman’s burden. This civilization was born out of the Greek andrnthe Roman civilization, the Bible and the Gospels, Renaissancernhumanism, and most of the great scientific discoveries.rnThe rights of man stem directly from Christianity in whichrnWestern civilization is steeped. Our spiritual, moral, family,rnand aesthetic values have their sources in the ideas developedrnduring the course of our long, shared history.rnTherefore it might not be imperative to seek out elsewherernadditional ideas which could confuse the wonderful and fragilernmagic formula of our Western civilization. Promoting onlyrnthat which is common to each individual, each race, each culture,rnand creating from the residue of this fusion a universal,rnobligatory, and simplistic system, does not represent the valuesrnof our civilization. I believe that we —the United States,rnFrance, Europe, and a few other countries—are brothers, thatrnwe are part of the same family. I also believe that we cannot dornw itiiout the United States in the defense and promotion of ourrnshared values. This is an enormous responsibility for yourrncountry. This responsibility obliges your country to pay morernheed to the cultures of Europe. None of us can act alone.rn16/CHRONICLESrnrnrn