Although I realize the thread is now way past this point, this particular comment has irked me into responding anyway.
Naftush:
“nothing happening today deserves this kind of rhetoric. Believe it or not, there were times when Am Yisrael didn’t have 60,000 full-time learners, and the world spun on its axis anyway.”
True. And throughout all those thousands of years, life has never, ever been half as good for then is it is now. Then, we often literally did not have food to eat; now we live in wealth and comfort that could not have been dreamed of a mere 50 years. Then, the goyim made our lives miserable with anti-semitic laws, beatings, and pogroms (by many names); now we can practice our Religion in all but complete peace and security. Coincidence? I (and apparently, R’ Chaim Kanievsky) think not. Torah is the source of everything we have; weaken it, and we will end up with more problems, not less.