Mark Steyn: Worshipping at the church of Tim Hortons (social suicide in Canada, Britain and Europe)

Macleans ^ | May 03, 2006 | Mark Steyn

[NZerFromHK]

Yet another provocative article from the euroweenies' perspective. Keep 'em coming Mark, the Euros definitely need more wake up calls judging from the response to another of your recent article!

[NZerFromHK]

Mark Steyn ping!

[Cacique]

Mark Steyn has that rare ability, as I do, to look at the forest from the outside and figure out the different trees and weeds.

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[Lurker]

Steyn knocks another one out of the park.

I'm looking forward to reading the book he mentioned.

Thanks for posting the entire article.

L

[okie01]

"Why do certain parts of Europe exhibit a curious, even bizarre, approach to death? Why did so many of the French prefer to continue their summer vacations during the European heat wave of 2003, leaving their parents unburied and warehoused in refrigerated lockers (which were soon overflowing)? Why is death increasingly anonymous in Germany, with no death notice in the newspapers, no church funeral ceremony, no secular memorial service -- 'as though,' Richard John Neuhaus observed, 'the deceased did not exist'?"

How a society deals with its dead is a clear indicator of its health. This was brought home to me by the burial styles employed at our Mesa Verde National Park -- cliff dwellings utilized by the pre-Columbian Anasazi culture in America's Southwest.

When the society was healthy and prospering, burials were evidently quite formal, individual and with full honors -- as the deceased was fully dressed and accompanied by tools, weapons or toys, as appropriate.

Over time, however, as the society declined, bodies were literally "thrown over the side" -- into the town garbage dump at the base of the cliff.

One could see this change occurring over time -- several centuries worth of decline.

Europe would appear to be approaching "the edge of the cliff"...

[knews_hound]

Simply outstanding Steyn.

BTTT

Cheers,

knewshound

Coming soon to a City near you !

[jgorris]

Oh well. If there's an emptiness at the heart of the advanced social-democratic state, at least Canada's worshipping the doughnut; Europe's worshipping the hole.

Priceless.

[hinckley buzzard]

You really need a Euro-Michael Adams to answer those questions -- to point out that Americans' collapsing communities are driving them to flock to grim rain-swept cemeteries and huddle round burial plots of friends and family in the forlorn hope of recovering the lost sense of society obliterated by their paranoid Second Amendment fearfulness, while the Frenchman by contrast affirms his belief both in personal interconnectedness and collective responsibility by spending the weekend with his wife's sister at a nude beach on the Côte d'Azur, secure in the knowledge that his dead mother on ice in the meat locker back in town is the state's problem, not his.

It doesn't get any better than this--ever.

[mojito]

"...to point out that Americans' collapsing communities are driving them to flock to grim rain-swept cemeteries and huddle round burial plots of friends and family in the forlorn hope of recovering the lost sense of society obliterated by their paranoid Second Amendment fearfulness, while the Frenchman by contrast affirms his belief both in personal interconnectedness and collective responsibility by spending the weekend with his wife's sister at a nude beach on the Côte d'Azur, secure in the knowledge that his dead mother on ice in the meat locker back in town is the state's problem, not his."

Mr. Steyn has a gift for making the truth hurt. Ouch.

[RJL]

You really need a Euro-Michael Adams to answer those questions -- to point out that Americans' collapsing communities are driving them to flock to grim rain-swept cemeteries and huddle round burial plots of friends and family in the forlorn hope of recovering the lost sense of society obliterated by their paranoid Second Amendment fearfulness, while the Frenchman by contrast affirms his belief both in personal interconnectedness and collective responsibility by spending the weekend with his wife's sister at a nude beach on the Côte d'Azur, secure in the knowledge that his dead mother on ice in the meat locker back in town is the state's problem, not his.

It doesn't get any better than this--ever.
------
Agreed, Mark at his best.

[NeoCaveman]

But not in Canada. "We don't go to church as much on Sundays," says Adams. "We go shopping and we go to Tim's." Gotcha. Americans are forced to worship Christ, whereas Canadians are free to worship crullers.

How does he do write so well and so consistently?

[eureka!]

marking

[xsmommy]

he is a jewel.

[fortunecookie]

Wow, Steyn hit it out of the park again! And no steroids.

What is Kidd's problem? It's over the top and back again with superlatives and overdrawn stereotypes. Does he actually believe half of the p00p streaming out of his head and into the article? What a sad, strange litle man. Who would probably benefit from a visit to a Church!

[concrete is my business]

I wonder if there will ever be a time when America thinks about bringing home the bodies of her soldiers that are buried in France?

I could see that happening one day if things keep "progressing" there.

[Billthedrill]

"Canadians, by contrast, are far less fearful," he decides. "Americans now increasingly use churches as their replacement for a sense of community lost to long working hours and lengthy commutes."

Uh...yeah...yeah, we've sure come a long way from our atheist roots into the theological quagmire we're in today. Is this individual sane?

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Steyn is the Cormac McCarthy of non-fiction.

I love his writing.

[Albion Wilde]

How I wish Steyn could run for President; or at least Chief of Staff or presidential political advisor.

[wizardoz]

You really need a Euro-Michael Adams to answer those questions -- to point out that Americans' collapsing communities are driving them to flock to grim rain-swept cemeteries and huddle round burial plots of friends and family in the forlorn hope of recovering the lost sense of society obliterated by their paranoid Second Amendment fearfulness, while the Frenchman by contrast affirms his belief both in personal interconnectedness and collective responsibility by spending the weekend with his wife's sister at a nude beach on the Côte d'Azur, secure in the knowledge that his dead mother on ice in the meat locker back in town is the state's problem, not his.

Man. Reading Steyn when he's on a roll is like watching a master fencer twirl his silver, glittering rapier in the sun. It's beautiful!

[randog]

The other week, the Toronto Star assigned Kenneth Kidd to do a big story...

Canadian journalists/reporters must live in daily fear that their work will have caught the eye of the Master Idiot Slayer, the Belittler of Lesser Wordsmiths, Mark Steyn.