Asymmetric Books and Literature

Mark Steyn is a great writer. How do I know? In America Alone, he takes the potentially dismal subject of Muslim terrorism/encroachment upon Western society and breathes enough life into it to compel this busy gent to finish his economical (214 pages) book within a few short hours. With a right-left combination of information and insight followed up by a jab of humor, this is the one indispensable Clash of Civilizations book and the one to pass on to your un-hip friends who should number many on this side of the pond (I understand that Europeans are already aware of the issues, although their individual reactions vary from welcoming to radical to thoroughly head-burying).

Mark Steyn’s thesis is that sometime within the next hundred years, Europe will become a Muslim continent resulting from a combination of weakness on the part of native Europeans and enthusiastic self-confidence of the part of Muslims. In other words, lacking the will to defend their culture (see Zinn for how), the demoralized Westerner will abandon their own gelding to hop on the strong stallion of Islam, forsaking liberal democracy for the new caliphate and, thus, leaving America alone.

Unlike global warming, a concern for which Steyn mocks as an example of Western mental flaccidity, Steyn gives real-life examples, not just computer-model gimmickry, to support his thesis which one may divide into two categories, demographic and moral. To wit: Yemen will, by the middle of the next century, have more people than Russia; a third of all children in some parts of France and the low countries are Muslims- and many of these are “disaffected” (excusably violent); indigenous European populations will soon reach the point of no return-a population dynamic from which no nation can grow while the non-indigenous, mostly Muslim, population will skyrocket; Westerners, especially women, are converting to Islam in growing numbers; many examples of self-hating, and culturally suicidal Westerners and naive, strength-sapping, political correctness; many more examples of committed Muslim evangelists of both the terrorist persuasion and the peacefully ambitious type.

Steyn also delves into Muslim-irrelevant Euro-defects like its unsustainable social programs, its male non-maleness, and its permanent ennui, all part of a party-animal present-tense attitude towards life.

The arguments above may be familiar, but some of the issues discussed in the book are completely original to me. In an echo of the Alaska purchase, Steyn posits that Russia will have to sell its land in Siberia to either China or some other nation because it lacks the people to exploit it. He says that Japan, because it chooses not to allow immigration, will be a pure example of national demographic Hara-kiri. How about Steyn’s prediction that China will not achieve world dominance because of its low birth rate? Good stuff.

America Alone isn't just polemic spin, for although one can defend the current European state of mind (you're only here a short time-why sweat the long-term stuff), one can claim the metrosexual is an improvement over his brutish forefathers, and one can argue about whether Europe will be better as a wholly or significantly Muslim continent (I'm sure my Muslim friends would say it'd be an improvement), I think one would be hard-pressed to dispute the facts as Mark Steyn presents them.

As critical as the above information is, what really makes this book indispensable is Steyn’s wit and power of observation. The book’s tone is fatalistic in that Steyn believes it’s far too late for a call to action amongst Europeans, but it’s also somewhat whimsical-even gay. Steyn infuses America Alone with a kind of gallows/Duck Soup/ “I can’t believe these guys are winning” humor that existed in the times proceeding other societal catastrophes. Every other page contains one such gem, so I just opened it at random and picked one. The passage I happened upon has Steyn’s response to Observer editor Will Hutton’s negative comparison of the American revolution to the French variety:

Well, you never know. It may be the defects of America’s Founders that help explain why the United States has lagged so far behind France in Technological innovation, economic growth, military performance, standard of living, etc.

His reflections on Canadian cross-dressing, Danish road signs, and French cheese aren't to be missed.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK is the perfect summation of the state of the Western man.

The book isn’t without his faults. Steyn drops his bucket in the demography well a little too often, even after he’s made his point abundantly clear or is exploring another issue altogether, but it’s a little rough patch on the otherwise perfectly green field of an intellectual playground.

America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It