America Alone

Ah, Mark Steyn, how I do love thee. For those who don't know, Steyn is a conservative columnist that specializes in humor. Think Jonah Goldberg, but smarter (not that Jonah isn't smart!). Anyway, he has a (kinda) new book out titled America Alone that looks at the changing demographics of Europe (and Japan) and discusses the implications of those changes in regard to the War on Terror, and western civilization more generally.

The basic thesis is this: The Secularized West is having fewer and fewer kids and a greater number of deeply religious Muslim immigrants. Within a few decades many western European countries will have a majority of Muslims living in them; this will have disastrous effects upon the West as a whole.

The sheer demographics are frightening and impossible to deny. Fertility rates have dropped massively in Europe (and to a lesser degree in the US) and the only reason population hasn't dropped in those countries yet is because of large immigration. Imagine: France without the French! While that might sound nice in theory, when the French are being replaced with poor, uneducated, pre-Enlightenment Muslims, problems can arise. In this scenario, the Danish Cartoon controversy and the French riots two years ago were just the opening shots in a cultural war which dwarfs anything we've seen thus far.

Why is it that Muslim immigrants can cause such problems? Primarily because the West has embraced the philosophy of multiculturalism, where no ideology is too radical to condemn. Thus, imams are free to preach hatred to their worshippers, radicalizing a large segment of the population. This, combines with the lack of a strong economy encourages fanaticism.

It is a very interesting book, and I highly recommend it to anyone (like me) interested in this sort of thing. Steyn argues that the West is voluntarily killing itself, and wonders whether we have the will to correct this. He's skeptical. Me too, though I guess one shouldn't give up hope.

As Rattrap always says: "We're all gonna die."