NR | 1 h 5 min | Documentary | 2023

Anyone who compulsively engages in self-criticism and only remembers their worst mistakes rather than their greatest accomplishments would probably be diagnosed by psychiatrists with alarmingly severe depression.

Yet, this self-defeating mindset has increasingly taken hold on a national scale here in America, largely with the media’s blessing. Filmmaker Gloria Z. Greenfield explains how the indoctrination campaigns of woke activists and radical academics have rotted away the confidence of the West in the documentary “Civilization in the Danger Zone,” which opens in New York theaters on April 21.

The Western world’s self-loathing did not just happen. In 1964, conservative icon James Burnham warned of the free world’s lack of resolve in his classic book, “The Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism.” Although the fall of Soviet communism seemed to herald the triumph of the West and invalidate Burnham’s alarm, the long-term trends identified by Greenfield’s expert commentators continued unabated.

The film’s on-camera scholars argue the campaign to undermine the principles of American democracy began in earnest with the sexual revolution of the late 1960s, which weakened the primacy of the family unit as the foundation of society. With the national culture growing increasingly secularized, religious institutions, such as churches and schools, no longer serve as the unifying forces that they once were. Therefore, as family and religious identity weakens, so does national cohesion.

These social and ideological trends also hold practical implications, especially the resulting decline in birthrates in the United States and our allies. Among Western democracies, only Israel has been immune to this projected demographic shortfall, both among its religious and non-Orthodox populations.

Indeed, the Jewish people’s ability to maintain their identity in the face of opposition, oppression, and even occupation, becomes a model to study in Greenfield’s documentary. Greenfield and company also remind the audience this is a perilous time to be disunited and irresolute, given the mounting threat posed to liberal democracy by Xi Jinping’s increasingly hostile and territorially ambitious CCP regime.

Although the message might sound very compatible with Christian conservatism, it is important to note many of the film’s interview subjects are in fact Jewish scholars, such as Ruth Wisse (Harvard University professor and recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2007), Eric Cohen (of the Tikvah Fund), and Moshe Koppel (of the Kohelet Policy Forum in Israel). Frankly, this is hardly surprising, since Greenfield has previously exposed rising anti-Semitism in the documentary “Unmasked Judeophobia,” which is, sadly, even more timely now than when it first released.

Prominent conservative commentators like Victor Davis Hanson and Frank Gaffney also address the questions raised by the film, along with Dave Rubin, who is also a well-known conservative, who happens to be openly gay. Indeed, given the voices Greenfield assembles, it is hard to dismiss “Civilization in the Danger Zone” as Evangelical Christian polemics.

Frankly, its scope is broader than that. Admittedly, it assumes a broad overlap between Judaic and Christian values, but Greenfield and her cast of commentators are completely unconcerned with partisan political controversies. Names like Trump or Ocasio-Cortez are never mentioned at all. Instead, they focus on historically defining figures like Karl Marx and Thomas Jefferson.

In fact, Larry P. Arnn of Hillsdale College offers some much-needed second thoughts regarding Jefferson. While he makes no defense for the founding father’s slave ownership, he reminds us Jefferson was one of the prime movers behind the Northwest Ordinance, which forbade slavery in the newly acquired Ohio River territories. That kind of nuanced perspective on history is largely absent in current cancel culture debates.

“Civilization in the Danger Zone” certainly has a point of view, but it makes all its points in a highly measured, reasonable manner. Greenfield also organizes the material with admirable economy, given the highly manageable 65-minute running time. In some ways, the thesis harkens back to the “clash of civilizations” discourse prevalent in the 2000s but updated for the era of wokeness.

The documentary’s underlying question deserves serious thought: How long can a nation survive when its younger generations hold its founding principles in contempt?

Recommended for its provocative thesis and restrained tone, the DVD for “Civilization in the Danger Zone” is already available on the website of the production company, Doc Emet Productions.

“Civilization in the Danger Zone” opens in New York theaters on April 21.

‘Civilization in the Danger Zone’
Documentary
Director: Gloria Z. Greenfield
Running Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Rated: 4 out of 5