"Barbarism, like the jungle, does not die out, but only retreats behind the barriers that civilization has thrown up against it, and waits there always to reclaim that to which civilization has temporarily laid claim."—historian Will Durant

Durant made this same point in a shorter quote, which I really like: "Civilization is an occasional and temporary retreat from the jungle." The jungle has no law. That makes it easy for predators, even the human kind. It is civilized, virtuous laws that man cannot abide for long.

I have never been in a real Amazonian-type jungle, and, being the age I am, have no real desire to go to one. But I do like to watch jungle survival movies, where 10 people go in and only two—the male and female who fall in love—come out alive. There's just still something in me that enjoys watching obnoxious, liberal Hollywood actors get eaten by snakes and crocodiles. I guess I'm not the only one who relishes it; there are plenty of such movies to be seen.

So, even though I've never been to an Amazonian-type jungle and have no desire to go to one, I think I would feel safer there than I would today in Minneapolis, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and a host of other Democratic Party-run American cities. Buck Owens—do you remember him?—sang about New York City: "It ain't nothin' but a concrete jungle…" And that was about 50 years ago. Is there any civilization left in that city? Well, there won't be if Zohran Mamdani gets his way.

I'm only partly being facetious in the above paragraph. While there certainly are (I hope) some decent people remaining in America's metropolises, the jungle, the barbarians, certainly exist in those places, in huge numbers, and are increasing exponentially. Civilization is retreating, as it always does in the face of a........

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