Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn is basically everything I dislike - bigot Christian, anti-abortion, gun supporter, climate change denier, 'America-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-look-at-us!'... He goes against everything I stand for, and to be honest I am quite tired of the short sighted views of his likes. Actually, now in the era of Trump these people make me quite fed up. Yet, reading him is quite interesting because, behind the simplicity of his views hide a few impolitically correct reflexions that are show more nevertheless relevant.

Facing here the rise of Islamism, he dresses the death certificate of the whole Western World but the US; unless the US makes the right decisions (according to him) which (according to him) is far from being a given. He is shooting his prejudices all over, from Canada to Australia; yet it's Europe he is especially targeting here and, as a European, I have to say his stance echoes many of my own personal feelings.

Europe? Why Europe? Because Europe is history. Bye, bye. On the way out. Soon dead.

His verdict may be over the top, yet his arguments are everything but difficult to ignore. He is right: we are an ageing population, relying on social policies that are unsustainable in the long run, all of it being a serious challenge to our over-bureaucratic governments and 'nanny states'. He is right too: cultural relativism is a cancer, that has led to communautarism, divisions, and the rise of a dangerous political correctness that seriously undermines free speech and therefore democracy. Is it a wonder, then, than haters of all sides (from extremists Muslims to far right populists) are gaining ground? Europe is turning into a cocktail way more Molotov than Martini, and it should concern us all.

BUT, he is wrong too (and seriously off the mark) on other scores which, badly enough, are the core of his book: the consequences of the rise of Muslim population, and secularism and socialism.

On Muslims, he is falling prey of that pitiful trap every 'green peril' adherent falls into that is, ascribing them values that are opposites and challenging to western ones, and so viewing Islam as a threat to the western world. That's bonkers. The only 'Islam' which is barbaric and threatening, and not only to Europe but Muslims themselves (but Mark Steyn is way too prejudiced to get that point) is Wahhabism and its derivative - and the vast majority of Muslims vomit it (eg how many European Muslims went on to join ISIS?... The pitifully low figures says it all, really...).

I won't delve into secularism, that he accuses of being such a spiritual vacuum that others (read: 'Muslims' that is, for him, 'extremists') are more than willing to fulfil. That, again, is bonkers. Most European countries made the choice of separating church and state, it's for a reason. Should he study history he would know why; he hasn't done his homework so I will leave it here. I am just wondering: is he really thinking the bigotry we see in America any better? Or is he supporting some sort of Christian theocracy? That would be funny, because that would -ironically- make him a Christian version of the Muslims he denounces... Ha! Either way, he is too short sighted to see the point.

Last but not least, when it comes to socialism and the unsustainability of our social programs, it's not all down to welfare state turning citizens into assisted and apathetic morons, but to a falling birth rates. Generosity is not the problem (though it might be for a supporter of unbridled capitalism as he seems to be). Demographic is. But I give him some points for a good laugh: his understanding of socialism is so caricatural it's hilarious.

All in all then, Mark Steyn is nothing but a populist; and like all populist he is very good at pointing at problems, but awful at pointing at the causes and so address them appropriately. I liked reading this for its sharp and vitriolic sense of humour. Honestly, he takes no prisoner and I really loved that! Its ability to press where it hurts is also welcome, especially since he does point at serious issues. But, if you are looking for a serious read behind the real reason of why Europe is in the state it is and/or the place of its Muslim population, then, frankly, go elsewhere. He is so prejudiced, it would have been funny were his ideas not gaining ground (again, far-right populism sadly going mainstream). show less

One of the more fascinating attempts at explaining the decline of the West is Mark Steyn's "America Alone." Though the main thrust of the book is the threat of Islam, Steyn examines numerous sources of decay in Western society, the upshot being that we are vulnerable to the threat only because of our weakness, confusion, and self-defeating behavior.

Steyn offers the reader reams of evidence to back up his assertion that a "significant strain of Islam" (which today happens to be the show more overwhelmingly dominant one) is wreaking havoc across the planet. Everything from riots in the Parisian banlieue to the massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan to the Palestinian death cult is exposed in all its horror. It is virtually everywhere, and it is constant:

"We switch on the news every evening and, though there are many trouble spots around the world, as a general rule it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in 'Palestine,' Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali, Muslims vs. Danish cartoonists in Scandinavia."

Instead of confronting the threat, or even acknowledging it for what it is, Western elites drag their populations into an anesthetized state of denial. Discussion of the issue (if it exists at all) is filtered through the layers of the multiculturalist narrative, which leaves it sanitized and devoid of real content. Says Steyn:

"Bomb us, and we agonize over the 'root causes.' Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that 'Islam is a religion of peace.' Issue blood-curdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush and Blair. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the 'vast majority' of Muslims 'jihad' is a harmless concept meaning 'healthy-lifestyle lo-fat granola bar'."

As Steyn makes clear, the problem would never have gotten so out of hand were it not for the meltdown of intellect that has occurred among the "educated" portion of the Western world. The jihadis take full advantage of this breach, and they are aided and abetted at every turn by their "progressive" enablers.

The West has lost its will to fight. We consistently defeat ourselves. The Islamists

"know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure there's an excellent chance they can drag things out until Western Civilization collapses on itself and Islam inherits by default. An army is only one weapon a civilization wields, and the weapon of last resort, too. But when you add up those elements of national power--military, judicial, diplomatic, economic, informational--it's hard not to conclude that (as was said of the British after the fall of Singapore) at least four of those five guns are pointing in the wrong direction. The point of the media is to speak truth to (domestic) power, the point of transnationalism is to constrain American power, the point of law is to upgrade the defendant--and the upshot of economic power in a time of plenty is that every time you gas up you're funding an enemy who's flusher than he's been since the fall of Constantinople. Meanwhile, we fight the symptoms--the terror plots--but not the cause: the ideology. The self-imposed constraints of this war--legalistic, multilateral, politically correct--are clearer every day."

Steyn devotes quite a bit of ink to the issue of demography. The Muslim world, including the recent transplants into Europe, are benefiting from a high birthrate (the "upper reaches of the fertility hit parade") whereas the native populations--especially in Spain, Italy, and Greece--are falling far below replacement rate. The U.S. is chugging along at slightly above replacement level.

This phenomenon is of vast historical significance:

"In the fourteenth century, the Black Death wiped out a third of the Continent's population; in the twenty-first, a larger proportion will disappear--in effect, by choice. We are living through a rare moment: the self-extinction of the civilization which, for good or ill, shaped the age we live in."

Steyn points out that in Europe, the Muslims are young; they are also energetic, confident, aggressive, and ready for sacrifice. The native populations are aging, and they are sluggish, guilt-ridden, fat, and dependent upon the welfare state. It does not take a sophisticated analyst to project scenarios one or two decades into the future. The picture is not pretty.

America Alone is a good read. Steyn's wit lies in wait at every turn of the page, and his observations on a wide range of peripheral topics are thought-provoking, to say the least. Take, for example, this perceptive comment on anti-Americanism:

"All dominant powers are hated--Britain was, and Rome--but they're usually hated for the right reasons. America is hated for every reason. The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lap-dancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it's controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too godless, America is George Orwell's Room 101: whatever your bugbear you will find it therein, whatever you're against, America is the prime example of it."

Which is followed by this marvelous segue:

"That's one reason why [America's] disparagers have embraced environmentalism. If Washington were a conventional great power, the intellectual class would be arguing that the United States is a threat to France or India or Gabon or some such. But because it's so obviously not that kind of power, the world has had to concoct a thesis that the hyperpower is a threat not merely to this or that rinky-dink nation state but to the entire planet, if not the entire galaxy. 'We are,' warns Al Gore portentiously, 'altering the balance of energy between our planet and the rest of the universe.' ... You wouldn't happen to have the statistical evidence for that, would you?"

If things continue on their course, predicts Steyn, we may find that

"the world will be well on its way to a new Dark Ages. Now, as then, Europe has its do-nothing kings--les rois fainéants--thought these days we call them European commissioners and chancellors and prime ministers. Now, as then, we have a Great Plague--the virus of Islamism--and the great migrations--the continent-wide version of 'white flight' already under way in Holland, as the beleaguered Dutch leave their native land for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Now, as then, we must all bow before the 'edict of toleration'--as laws and customs are rearranged to abase themselves before the gods of boundless multicultural tolerance."

A classic case of this abasement is detailed in the recently added introduction, "Soon to be Banned in Canada." When excerpts from the book were published by the news magazine Maclean's, the Canadian Islamic Congress filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Muslim group objected to the "flagrant Islamophobia" contained in the book.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has established itself as an extra-judicial star chamber for the enforcement of politically-correct orthodoxy. These little Soviet-style kangaroo courts, staffed by bureaucrats and specializing in "hate speech," have cast serious doubt over the future of Canadian democracy.

Discussing the complaint over his "flagrant Islamophobia," and the ensuing witch hunt, Steyn remarks:

"The head of the Canadian Islamic Congress is a man called Mohamed Elmasry. In a TV interview in 2004, Dr. Elmasry said it was legitimate to kill any Israeli civilian, male or female, over the age of eighteen. He is, thus, an objective supporter of terrorism. Yet he's accusing me of 'hate speech,' and is apparently the new poster boy for liberal progressive 'human rights' in Canada.

"And, in a nutshell, that paradox is what this book is about: What happens when a Western world so in thrall to platitudes about boundless 'tolerance' allows the forces of intolerance to carve it out from the inside? In seeking to stifle the arguments of America Alone, the Canadian Islamic Congress is making my point more eloquently than I ever could--that a significant strain of Islam is incompatible with the rough and tumble of a free society."

Food for thought. show less

I'm cheering Mark Steyn on. It's not that I agree with every conclusion he makes, nor with every idea. But his fundamental thesis, that the western world in the hands of the liberal progressives and the political left cannot survive well in the real global world of ideologies and power, and so will collapse before the advance of any strong ideology that forces it's way, is a good one.

We have abandoned truth, common sense, and principles. Without them, the western world will die. Without show more them, maybe it should. Alarmist? Well what else wakes people up but an alarm? show less

Seldom has a book managed to scare the hell out of me while, at the same time, making me laugh out loud. This one did those things.

Mark Steyn explains in great detail exactly why Europe has already crossed the line of ultimately being dominated by its Muslim immigrants and why the United States is the last best hope for the rest of the world, as usual.

A combination of factors seems to ensure that the United States will one day relatively soon find itself alone in defending a lifestyle and a show more form of government that no longer exists around the world, with a very few possible exceptions such as Australia and Japan.

These factors include: a birth rate that dooms most of Western Europe to being unable to maintain even its present population levels while Muslim immigrants outbreed them at a rate of four or five to one, a softening or "femininization" of Western cultures that are too concerned with being politically correct to defend their very cultures against the Muslim invaision, the billions of dollars of oil money that are being spent on a Muslim invasion of the rest of the world and the fact that Middle Eastern cultures have become a lethal combination of utter primitiveness and fairly sophisticated technology populated by people who do not fear death and will do anything, or kill anyone, to further their "cause."

This book should be read by everyone who is concerned with the future of his country, his children and, especially, his grandchildren. Unfortunately, it will not. show less