A message from [1] Rogier Van Bakel:

Malcolm Gladwell reviews a book ("[2] Collapse") that talks about how and why cultures/societies die. This passage made me think of the Europe's half-hearted struggle against Islamic fascism:

The lesson of "Collapse" is that societies, as often as not, aren't murdered. They commit suicide: they slit their wrists and then, in the course of many decades, stand by passively and watch themselves bleed to death.

Whole thing at [3] http://www.gladwell.com/2005/2005_01_15_a_collapse.html