At a time when more than 70% of Americans think our country is heading in the wrong direction, when woke revolutionaries promote false history, racial animus, collective guilt and neo-segregation, award-winning director/producer Gloria Z. Greenfield brings us her fifth hard-hitting documentary, "Civilization in the Danger Zone."
Her timing is impeccable.
Greenfield skillfully stitches together the commentaries of 23 renowned scholars and cultural critics into a clear and compelling exploration of the divisive political and cultural agendas that are subverting Western values and individual rights.
Kenneth Marcus of the Louis D. Brandeis Center opens the film with a powerful warning: America is facing an organized and deliberate effort to undermine our identity as a great nation and the very values that protect us as a civilization.
"In the end, not only will names and history be changed, but, more importantly, we will lose fundamental freedoms and liberty.
"We are witnessing the greatest crime of identity theft in the history of the world. That is what is at stake here."
Ms. Greenfield focuses on threats to our Western way of life, including the devaluation of the family, the woke takeover of American education, the denigration of our national pride, the secularization of our society and the existential menace of totalitarianism both at home and abroad.
The stellar cast makes the point that the family unit, the traditional vehicle through which we hand down our political and cultural values and traditions to the next generation, is being devalued and eroded through changing cultural norms and public policy.
Some today even advocate eliminating the nuclear family altogether, a Marxist concept.
David Brog of the Maccabee Task Force points to low birthrates in Western nations, observing, "When you can’t replace yourself, your civilization will decline."
Eric Cohen of the Tikvah Fund challenges us to work for family renewal individually and within our communities.
For generations, Americans understood that for freedom to flourish, citizens must be educated in our history, traditions, values and how our government works.
However, today, civics education is either agenda-driven or eliminated altogether from school curriculums.
In red and blue states, in private, parochial and public schools and in our universities, students are not taught America’s impressive and unique story.
Instead, Robert Paquette of the Alexander Hamilton Institute and Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College explain that teachers trained in critical race theory, a radical, Marxist political ideology, promote a dark, false and distorted history of an America founded in slavery and hopelessly racist today.
The purpose, according to John Hinderaker of the Center of the American Experiment, is to “to teach children to hate their country and to stir up racial conflict among themselves.”
Hinderaker remarks that he can’t point to any other country in history that teaches its children to hate their own homeland.
DePaul University Professor Jason Hill describes the American academy’s effort to police thought by “decolonizing” curriculum, purging the great thinkers of Western civilization, now considered racist oppressors.
Peter Wood of the National Association of Scholars invokes the motto of Orwell’s “1984” Ministry of Information: “He who controls the past, controls the future and he who controls the present, controls the past.” Woke educators understand this all too well.
Accompanying the delegitimization of America’s history is an attack on nationalism and patriotism as “wicked” and the source of world conflict.
Eric Cohen, Rich Lowry of National Review and Moshe Koppel of the Kohelet Policy Forum make the case for a robust nationalism allowing us to "live out our best moral selves."
Rod Dreher of The American Conservative reminds us that "there is no country that is pure without sin," but patriotism doesn’t "require you to ignore the bad things in your nation’s history."
As with your family, you love your nation for all its wonderful qualities and achievements, while recognizing its faults and working to change them.
Ms. Greenfield discusses the twin versions of 20th century totalitarianism — Nazism and Communism — and warns us that we have neglected to recognize the evil of the latter and the existential threat posed by Communist China.
The film inveighs against secularization, the devaluing of our Judeo-Christian heritage and our religious institutions and the loss of respect for people of faith. Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse reminds us that "religion gives structure to human life, a set of values," a vehicle for "expressing gratitude" for all we have.
Eric Cohen urges us to invest in religious education to help young people feel connected to both their faith and our Western culture.
Kenneth Marcus puts it bluntly: Wokeism isn’t about identifying the real problems and fixing them, "it’s about creating this notion that everything is broken and everything needs to be replaced."
The goal is the destruction our Constitution, our political, cultural and religious institutions, representative government, the family, patriotism, the rule of law and freedom of speech and thought.
David Brog reminds us that it is Western civilization that has provided the enormous advances in human rights, human dignity and human equality.
Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution and Ruth Wisse highlight the uniqueness of the American experiment, allowing us to become the strongest, wealthiest and freest population in history.
According to Larry Arnn, the real American story is driven by its principles — not its imperfections. “The principles and institutions of the United States . . . are among the highest political blessings. They are imperfect, but also glorious. If we fail to understand this, we will lose those blessings.”
"Civilization in the Danger Zone" makes the case that Western civilization is at a critical juncture. The freedoms and birthright we enjoy as Americans are under attack and it is our obligation as beneficiaries of this unique heritage to defend it. If we won’t, who will?
The 65-minute Doc Emet Production film premieres on January 31, 2023 at The Broad Stage, Santa Monica, CA, sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center with Victor Davis Hanson offering pre-screening remarks. A trailer and information on screenings and DVDs can be found here.
Don’t miss it.
Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Ziva writes and lectures about U.S.-Israel relations, U.S. foreign policy, Israel, Zionism, Antisemitism and BDS on college campuses. Her articles have appeared in such publications as The Hill, New York Daily News, New York Observer, The Washington Times, American Spectator, American Thinker and Jerusalem Post. Read Ziva Dahl's Reports — More Here.
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