This thread has been derailed so much I think I can make an OT post. I request Mods to shift this to an appropriate thread or merge several of the related OT posts.
First off I agree partially with most of the view points presented by my respected fellow DFIans. However, there are a few things I do not agree with completely.
Firstly the West did not transition from a bunch of backwater nations whose people lived without roofs to a nation with aeroplanes and automobiles. Knowledge transmission and preservation of ancient methods and techniques by the use of writing meant that the West never really lost past discoveries unlike India where a lot of knowledge had been lost due to Islamic invasions, colonial maltreatment of the native population , poor record keeping and oral transmission of ancient knowledge. The pre-modern West may have lagged behind ancient China and India in a lot of fields but the civilization that gave us Plato, Diogenes, Archimedes, Pythagoras and Aristotle was in no way an inferior civilization. It was the rediscovery of mainly Hellenic texts after the Fall of Byzantium that reinvigorated Western rational thinking and led to the Enlightenment.
Secondly about women`s education and development of a society, while most Western nations developed when women had little literacy, the West or westernized nations like Japan have seen far greater levels of prosperity when women entered the work force and got more rights. The claim that women`s education has no effect on the holistic development of a nation is weak and at best arguable.
Having got all that out of the way, the points I agree with are the decline of the West due to loss of traditional values and adoption of poor policies.
The Western civilization(the USA , France ,Britain and her colonies) was mainly built on the bed-rock of a few core values:
1. A spirit of scientific inquiry and rational outlook which was further supplemented by a spirit of entrepreneurship and wealth making.
2. Strong family values based on Judeo-Christian principles that promoted a sheltered nuclear family with a father and mother figure but still left enough room for individualism which in turn led to the fostering of discipline and self-actualization goals.
3. A fair judiciary and a relatively non corrupt, liberal society based once again on liberal Judeo-Christian ethos.
The reason why the East fell behind the West was:
a. Policies of inward perfection and promotion of status quo as seen in Qing China where the Emperor was more worried about concubines rather than development of his nation. In Japan the same thing was observed during the Edo Period with a stratified feudalistic society.
b. An unhealthy stress on religious dogma as seen in the Middle East, Mughal India.
c. Finally this is a point I have mentioned earlier, the lack of passing down of knowledge of previous generations due to various factors.
As a consequence the West thrived and the East had to suffer from colonialism and humiliation. However the world has seen a great shift in the value systems after 1950 or the post-religious society in the West.
If you analyze the past century`s scientific and societal achievements you will find that the West thrived due to strong(often Puritanical) family and religious values and most achievers in the West,barring a few exceptions, came from well established families. Now those very things that made the West great are changing. Most people in the West today have abandoned God,given in to debauchery and hedonism, adopted materialistic neo-capitalist agendas and accept the diktats of oligarchs without any resistance.
Now I admit that no one wants to live in a superstitious society where God and after life has to be the be all and end all of existence. Rather it is the preservation of family values which are more important. Without family values, the future generations come from poor broken families without father figures and lack of opportunities to rise up in society. A good example of this phenomena is the case of African American communities after 1960s. The points 2 and 3 that I had put as the reason for development of the West depends on the existence of a religion that promotes family values which in turn creates a stable, sustainable society. Nearly all religions promote procreation within the bounds of marriage so a religious society should never face a population decline as seen in the Westernized nations. Even in Japan and China which are much more conservative than the West it is the erosion of religious beliefs and a stress on personal satisfaction that has led to decline in fertility.
Now only point 1 remains which in my opinion is still dependent on points 2 and 3. For science to flourish, you need a stable society where family and societal values are respected. Without them it is hard to uphold a society that promotes wealth making and scientific enquiry. Fertility rates and stable marriage rates are ultimately related to the religiousness of society. We are yet to reach a level of Utopian human consciousness as promoted by Osho or Krishnamurti which would allow such traditional societal mores to be discarded and instead every kid would grow up peacefully in a commune.
Just take a look at the number of out of wedlock births in the US and Europe today.
The fertility rates in US and Europe:
To address out of wedlock births and falling birth rates the western countries( driven by oligarchs of neo-capitalist organizations) promote immigration to shore up growth and keep their population at stable rates.
Now if the incoming population is receptive to the values of the host country things work out well, otherwise the consequences are far more devastating.
At the end of the day everyone needs to believe in something. Removal of religion does not solve anything but only creates more problems. A society based on rationality and common good is ideal but which nation has been able to do that. Most importantly the Western nations are even failing to force their cultures or assimilate their incoming population to their native customs and mores which has created a host of problems for them.