If you've been paying attention to the slow-motion car crash that is Western civilisation, J.B. Shurk's October 22, 2025, piece in American thinker (link below) hits like a gut punch: "The West Conquers Itself." Shurk nails it, our leaders aren't just incompetent; they're masterminds of self-sabotage, using age-old "divide and rule" tactics to fracture societies that once conquered the world. From Europe's EU overlords to America's identity-politics circus, the West is committing cultural hara-kiri, slicing itself into irreconcilable pieces while external threats lick their chops. It's not invasion or economic collapse killing us, it's suicide. Drawing from history's playbook and today's headlines, let's autopsy this mess: Why we're doing it, how it's unfolding, and whether we can snap out of this death wish before the lights go out.
Shurk's thesis is timeless: "Divide and rule" isn't just for conquerors, it's how the mighty fall when they turn it inward. Julius Caesar split Gaul's tribes to Romanise them; the Ottomans pitted ethnic groups against each other to rule a sprawling empire; the British stirred Indian castes to keep the Raj humming. Fast-forward to 2025: Western elites are doing the same, but to their own people. Why? Power. A united populace demands accountability; a divided one fights itself while the rulers raid the treasury.
In Europe, the EU's super-state dream is a masterclass. What started as a post-WWII trade bloc is now a bureaucratic behemoth with its own currency, president, and military ambitions, fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war scare. No continent-wide vote asked for this; it snuck in via incrementalism. Shurk's spot-on: Brussels exploits national gripes, Hungary vs. Poland, Brexit bitterness, to centralise power. "Anti-EU" now equals "pro-Putin," per Eurocrats, smearing sovereignists as traitors. X threads buzz with it: "EU's dividing us to rule a borderless blob." Result? A fractured Europe, ripe for external plucking.
America's no better: Two-party theatre keeps the masses at throats. Republicans and Democrats sling "racist," "fascist," "bigot" like confetti, while the unelected bureaucracy (CIA, FBI, EPA) swells unchecked. Shurk's right, news cycles obsess over hate, white supremacy, and phobias, distracting from trillion-dollar wars and corporate bailouts. Why? Divided voters don't notice the heist.
Shurk's killer insight: Illegal immigration is the West's preferred "divide and rule" dynamite. Leaders call it "humanitarian," but it's engineered chaos. Flood borders with migrants, then pit natives against newcomers: "You're racist if you complain about crime spikes or welfare strains." In Europe, Merkel's 2015 "refugee" wave turned Germany into a tinderbox; now, no-go zones and knife attacks dominate headlines. EU suits scream "climate refugees" to justify it, blaming Western "capitalism" for floods and famines. X rages: "Import the Third World, become the Third World."
In Oz and the U.S., it's the same script. Biden's border fiasco let in 10 million since 2021 — crime waves, housing crunches, but object? You're a "hateful bigot." Down Under, Labor's visa bonanza packs unis with foreign students, jacking rents while locals fume. Shurk's genius: This divides Christians from Muslims, natives from imports, turning societies into tribal warzones. No unity? No resistance to elite rule.
Why suicide? The West's poisoned by self-loathing. Shurk blames leaders for erasing history: "Accuse those who love their country of being hateful bigots." Unis lead the charge, decolonising curricula trash Western Civ as "imperialist patriarchy." In Australia, ANU's "whiteness studies" guilt kids over "stolen land," while Europe bans "hate speech" that offends migrants. X memes it: "West: Invent democracy, then apologise for it."
Result? Vulnerability. Shurk warns: Divided West can't fend off "civilisations that wish us harm" — Islam's conquest ethos or China's communism. Europe's no-borders policy invites it; America's identity wars weaken resolve. As Jonah Goldberg's Suicide of the West (2018) argued, we've forgotten what made us great: Enlightenment values, capitalism, rule of law. Without them, we're handing the keys to foes who remember their histories.
Shurk's chilling Q: "Do Western governments plan on dividing us until... America and Europe can just be handed over to Islamic conquerors and Chinese communists?" Spot-on. WEF's "Great Reset," UN migration pacts, it's engineered decline. X threads speculate: "Divide to conquer ourselves." If not deliberate, it's incompetence on steroids, either way, suicidal.
The West's suicide isn't inevitable. Shurk's fix: Ditch divide-and-rule, unite around shared history. Conservatives: Champion sovereignty, border walls, cultural pride. Revive Anzac spirit, Enlightenment ideals, teach kids to love their nations, not loathe them. Decentralise power, defund woke unis, build alternatives. If we remember our ancestors' grit, we can flip the script.
But time's ticking. As Shurk warns: "Western self-hatred has one outcome: Western immolation." Ignore it, and we're toast. Heed it, and the West rises again.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/10/the_west_conquers_itself.html