In Defense of Western Civilization

I'm starting this blog because I've not seen enough articles written in defense of Western civilization. To the contrary, almost daily I read attacks, either direct or subversive and indirect, on our culture and frankly I've wearied of it and feel it is my duty as a beneficiary of those that laid the foundations for our freedoms, our democracy, and our very way of life to rise in defense of all that we should hold dear. I shall try to back up my positions with quotes from Western culture's greatest thinkers and invite others to support or oppose my positions also with reference to the great minds or great books of the West.
As a Conservative I'll also be using the same sources to refute Liberalism and it's parasitic ideology.

I'm currently reading 'The Annals of Imperial Rome' by Tacitus and came across this great quote of Tiberius chiding a senator who was seeking an annual stipend from the state, "Hortalus: the divine Augustus gave you money but he did so spontaneously - and with no guarantee of a permanent supply. For permanent concessions would mean an end of all effort and all enterprise, because their incentives, fear and ambition, would be gone. Everyone would look irresponsibly elsewhere for relief, without lifting a finger for himself - a dead weight on the community."

It seems even the ancient Romans understood what socialists and Liberals today cannot understand, a handout becomes an addiction that destroys a man's will to provide for himself, thus robbing of him of his dignity, self respect, and motivation to improve his material condition.

Do Liberals really not understand this or do they not only understand it but seek to maintain it in order to have their "subjects" dependent on them for favors?