It’s the demography, stupid

The New Criterion ^ | Jan 2, 2006 | Mark Steyn

[Caipirabob]

This is quite possibly one of the very best articles I have read on FR in many a moon. It deserves to be read by every FReeper. If you don't repost this article in a day or so I will do so with credit to you.

Thanks and Happy New Years!

[Caipirabob]

Intriguing... Mr Steyn correctly points out that liberals promote policies that will ensure the degradation and finally the collapse of Western Society. Following the collapse, Western liberties will be replaced by (most likely) Islamofascist values such as those dictated by Sharia Law. In that event, the first casualties of such tyranny will be the Left itself.

And one may ask; "Why does the left do that which will guarantee not the perpetuity of our civil rights and liberties, but the destruction of them?"

And the answer that no one wants to acknowledge is that the Left does not want to ensure anything. The left only wants to see the destruction of Western society as a whole. Think about it: every aspect of Western values, whether it's Christianity, Family values and Parental rights, Capitalism, Civil Rights or whatever is under some sort of major cultural assault by the liberal left. Their complaints? Basically they are attempting to redefine every aspect of decency in such a way that it has no further meaning or values in Western society. They are chipping away, piece by piece at the cultural bedrock that supports Western society.

And we are collapsing to them.

Incrementalism has been their tools. Small battles, one by one and sneak attacks on cultural aspects that no one thought important enough to stand up and say "Enough!" They are winning small battles and will eventually win the war this way.

And that victory won't see the implementation of "liberal values". Why? Duh, because there are no "liberal values" unless you count the absence of any values at all. A moral vacuum will exist. Subsequently, nature abhors a vacuum and it will be filled. Most likely, as again Mr. Steyn correctly points out, with the culture with the greatest birth rate. Hello Sharia law and rule in America.

And the death of any liberals who resist it.

So, anyway, great article. Well written, well said, great post!

[mewzilla]

BTTT.

[kittymyrib]

WOW...thank God Steyn never went to the university to get his magnificent brain washed! Instead of reading a book about Teddy Roosevelt, I suggest Pres. Bush read this excellent synopsis of the Fall of Western Civilization. This article needs to be tatooed on the foreheads of every so-called Republican conservative, so they might get a hint of the long-range coming attractions in the Muslim jihad against the West. Worrying about global warming and its effects 500 years from now, or the 60 victims of bird flu since 1996 loses its urgency when one reads Steyn's opinion of the real dangers we face in the not-too-distant future if we don't wake up.

[Smokin' Joe]

But as modern technology, and democratic reform, infiltrate the eleventh century civilization that work up one day to find itself sitting on a big oil patch, they may loose their rabid potency for terrorist destruction.

While I cannot completely disallow this concept, it seems that the capabilities of modern technology are only being used diabolically by the islamists. Where westerners tape weddings, they tape beheadings, cell phones become detonators, etc.

Give chimpanzees enough training with rifles and let them use them to dominate the world, which they might do, but that does not mean that the world will become a better place for it, nor will they necessarily be able to build a rifle once that dominance is established.

At the bottom of it all is the culture, and ours needs to get back to the basic charachter which allowed it to dominate in the first place.

Without trying to inject another issue, I still cannot help but wonder about the potential squandered in abortion mills around the US since Roe v Wade, what those 40+ millions might mean even now, and not just fom an economic standpoint, as American Culture is being overrun with alien 'multicultures'.

The threat is real, and assimilation will likely not occur given the intractable nature of Islam. Even changing a word of the Koran in transcription is punishable by death. How many different editions of the Bible have been published in the same time period, often with phraseology which has subtle differences which lead to different meanings/interpretations? If they are wrong, it is immutably so.

The only thing left is to defend our culture, and for that to be successful, it must be a culture worthy of that defense. With the growing aspect of that culture in 'red' states, and among conservatives in general, there is hope.

[twntaipan]

there are no "liberal values" unless you count the absence of any values at all. A moral vacuum... exist(s).

Very, very well said.

[machman]

Finally got to finish reading this this morning. A must read for everyone.

[Looking4Truth]

Definitely a must read. BTTT for going into my personal archives.

[MassachusettsGOP]

Best Case Scenario I can see:
Immigration is Stopped to Europe, the Europeans teach the muslims how to do birth control, the Populations in Europe dwindle down to the few remaining very Christian people in Europe, and repopulation and recivilization kicks in again.

[cpdiii]

One of Marks best it is. He did leave out nuclear war. Within the next 20 years a Islamic nuclear bomb will explode in a major western city. At this point we will be in a nuclear war. Our side must win this one!

[infool7]

This is a very good article.

Perhaps I am being naïve but I think (maybe it’s really hope) that things will work out better then the way this article predicts. The way people seem to be more concerned with the latest football scores is not encouraging. The internet has allowed people to tune out really important news and focus on totally inane pastimes creating legions of useful idiots but on the flipside it has allowed the formation of groups like the Swift Boat Vets and the Pajamadheen. Truth triumphs over lies, order trumps chaos, eventually.

[Steel Wolf]

He did leave out nuclear war. Within the next 20 years a Islamic nuclear bomb will explode in a major western city.

Steyns point was that there's no point in Islamists destroying any more skyscrapers in cities they're going to take over anyway.

[starfish923]

I know of one smallish church in a rural area on the East Coast where the pastor has 8 children (all home schooled) and the youth/student pastor has 8 children (all home schooled). None are adopted children.
Families like these are the reasons red states are increasing in political clout, and they are exactly what Steyn suggests as an antidote to secular societal suicide

BUMP for the pastor and his wife.

[hocndoc]

The man's a genius. But how do we turn around, now?

[Clioman]

The Poles just joined the EU, and I have to wonder what those good Catholic folk think about the demographic makeup of the sinking ship they just boarded...

On a different note, Spengler (over at Asia Times.com) argues that modernity's impact on moslem fecundity will take another generation to achieve full affect, but that thereafter the Islamic world will share the same falling birthrates as the West...and that realization is already driving much of the mullahs' policy in Iran.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

The major movements in American history and many of those in world history have found people divided largely into thirds. One-third is passionate about one side, one-third is passionate about the other side, and one-third is disaffected (moderate).

As Steyn points out, the population growth among the "red staters" in the US is a tremendous counterbalance to Leftist influence and distraction in this country. In a couple of generations, America may find itself in a quasi-revival -- especially if we are surrounded by a growing horde of Islamofascists that are preparing to conquer us.

Steyn is right on target in addressing the middle third. If we can sway them here and abroad, disaster may well be averted. Personally, I don't hold out much hope. They are the middle third precisely because their diet is of tepid water, neither hot nor cold. And they are lulled by the opiate of postmodern relativism. The multiculturalists and disaffected are wading in the Lethe and tasting Lotus leaves while laughing at the rest of the West shouting at them from the banks that there are crocodiles in the river.

[Cicero]

It's hard to get the message out when the academics, the teachers, the entertainment industry, the opinion leaders, and the news media are all dominated by leftists.

I concur with your division into thirds. It was very obvious under clinton, and it's still obvious today. The problem, as you say, is that the undecided middle have been poorly educated about this emergency and poorly educated about patriotism. In the days of the Roman Republic, the populares or people's party was about evenly matched with the optimates or party of the nobility, but whenever there was a threat to Rome's survival they would come together and fall in behind the best leaders. It's none too sure that the leftists and the undecided middle are prepared to do that today.

It might take a few nuclear explosions in our cities to wake people up, something I hope never to see.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I completely agree.

I've said for years, the people in this country are so complacent it would take an attack as you mentioned or a depression like that which followed the crash of 1929, which could be effected by an attack on the petroleum supply, if they could pull it off. Unfortunately, it is only suffering that wakes people up to the basics that underpin Western civilization (patriotism, as you mentioned, the universal truths we find in the humanities, turning away from the Self toward God and others.)