Mark Steyn: It’s the demography, stupid

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 11/12/05 | Mark Steyn

[dennisw]

It's Steyn, baby!!!

[TexasNative2000]

But the point is that, while one can draft all sorts of hypothetical apocalyptic scenarios for the Great Satan, the European catastrophe isn’t hypothetical, but already under way.

Brilliance on display.

[dennisw]

"Let them eat cake" -Madame de Villepin

Make them drink Molotov cocktails -Dennisw

[TexasNative2000]

It is the best Steyn has yet produced. This guy has a better grasp on this than any politician, commentator, or poet . . . .

[Petrosius]

And when it comes to those living in France aged 20 and under, about 30 per cent are said to be Muslim and in the major urban centres about 45 per cent.

Yikes!

[A. Pole]

What happened in the 1990s was what Yamada Masahiro of Tokyo’s Gakugei University calls the first ‘low birth-rate recession’. It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the stupidity, economists — the stupidity of thinking you can buck demography.

Japan might go through a long period of relative slowdown. But it will survive as an intact nations. So Japanese will do fine and much better that Lebanon or EUrabia.

[Tax-chick]

Japan might go through a long period of relative slowdown. But it will survive as an intact nation.

That's a possibility ... but if the population, and especially the fighting-age population, gets small enough, the Japanese islands are going to look good to some expansionist power.

[A. Pole]

and especially the fighting-age population, gets small enough, the Japanese islands are going to look good to some expansionist power.

Not really. Japan is overcrowded (and most of her small land is not usable). Even with the 50% of present population Japan will have shortage of space.

[Snake65]

American firearms owners have a popular slogan: ‘If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.’ Likewise, if you marginalise religion, only the marginalised will have religion. That’s why France’s impoverished Muslim ghettos display more cultural confidence than the wealthiest enclaves of the capital.

I can think of no higher compiment to pay to a political writer than "this reminds me of Steyn." But the above is Steyn out-Steyning Steyn, if you follow my meaning.

[marktwain]

As others have stated: An especially brilliant Steyn essay.

[chatham]

Great Post Thanks.

Steyn is the Greatest and right on target.

[Psalm 73]

I look on religion like gun ownership.
That’s to say, New Hampshire has a high rate of firearms possession, which is why it has a low crime rate.
You don’t have to own a gun and there are sissy Dartmouth College arms-are-for-hugging types who don’t.
But they benefit from the fact that their crazy stump-toothed knuckle-dragging neighbours do.
If you want to burgle a home in the Granite State, you’d have to be awfully certain it was the one-in-a-hundred we-are-the-world pantywaist’s pad and not some plaid-clad gun nut who’ll blow your head off before you lay a hand on his $70 TV.
That’s the way it is with religion.

Oh, man Steyne kills me - could you imagine him on the same stage as Ann Coulter - together they would be "wet-my-pants" hillarious.

[Bob from De]

Now go back to that bland statistic you hear a lot these days: ‘about 10 per cent of France’s population is Muslim’. Give or take a million here, a million there, that’s broadly correct, as far as it goes. But the population spread isn’t even. And when it comes to those living in France aged 20 and under, about 30 per cent are said to be Muslim and in the major urban centres about 45 per cent. If it came down to street-by-street fighting, as Michel Gurfinkiel, the editor of Valeurs Actuelles, points out, ‘the combatant ratio in any ethnic war may thus be one to one’ — already, right now, in 2005.

Like the Fram oil filter guy says:

You can pay me now or pay me later!

[expatpat]

Close the Chunnel and remove landing rights for Pakistan Airlines.

[COUNTrecount]

Outstanding ! Thanks.

[sassbox]

But it will survive as an intact nations. So Japanese will do fine and much better that Lebanon or EUrabia.

As long as Japan does not allow massive Muslim immigration to make up for their birth dearth, they will survive. I don't think that Japan will be as foolish as Europe in this regard either. Everything I've read about the topic says that Japanese society is rather xenophobic and reluctant to admit immigrants, even from places like Korea or Vietnam.

[hershey]

Muslim terrorists are like the boogeyman under the bed. If you pretend he's not there, you won't have to gird your loins and protect life and limb. They're terrified of inciting events like Amman, Jordan or the London tube bombing. The real question is what will it take for France to face the fact that putting off the day of reckoning gives Muslim terrorists the upper hand? They feed the tiger bit by bit, until there's nothing left, and the tiger eats them alive.

[Tax-chick]

Japan, iirc, has an inefficient and highly-subsidized agricultural sector. They have land; it's just not going to the highest value use, as determined by the free market.

However, putting that aside, even if the hypothetical 50% of the population (practically all elderly) is still more crowded than I'd find comfortable, that's not going to defend them against an invader.

[SquirrelKing]

American firearms owners have a popular slogan: ‘If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.’ Likewise, if you marginalise religion, only the marginalised will have religion. That’s why France’s impoverished Muslim ghettos display more cultural confidence than the wealthiest enclaves of the capital.

One of his best nuggets so far. Steyn ROCKS!

[A. Pole]

Japan, iirc, has an inefficient and highly-subsidized agricultural sector.

It is VERY SMART of them. Otherwise their survival would be at risk in case of some conflict or disruption of imports.