Mahatma Gandhi once quipped, when asked what he thought of Western civilisation, “I think it would be a good idea!” Gandhi’s remark generally prompts a good-natured laugh, because it plays on the various meanings of the word civilisation. That is a reminder that we need to define our terms with some care. I’ll do that shortly, defining the words civilisation, Western and hope in ways that I hope will assist this discussion. First, some personal background which might explain my interest in the broad topic of the future of Western civilisation. I was born in the year that television came…