Mark Steyn: Lessons for us from London in flames

Orange County Register ^ | 8/12/2011 | Mark Steyn

[passionfruit]

The trick in this business is not to be right too early. A week ago I released my new book – the usual doom 'n' gloom stuff – and, just as the sensible prudent moderate chaps were about to dismiss it as hysterical and alarmist, Standard & Poor's went and downgraded the United States from its AAA rating for the first time in history. Obligingly enough they downgraded it to AA+, which happens to be the initials of my book: After America. Okay, there's not a lot of "+" in that, but you can't have everything.

But the news cycle moves on, and a day or two later, the news shows were filled with scenes of London ablaze, as gangs of feral youths trashed and looted their own neighborhoods. Several readers wrote to taunt me for not having anything to say on the London riots. As it happens, Chapter Five of my book is called "The New Britannia: The Depraved City." You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization's descent into barbarism. Anyone who's read it will fully understand what's happening on the streets of London. The downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too.

[passionfruit]

Mark Steyn just released his new book After America, available here: http://www.steynstore.com/ Anyway, he is making the rounds of talk shows and talk radio joking that his publicist arranged all the calamity happening with the downgrade and London riots to coincide with the release of the book.

I have my personally autographed copy (only available from the Steyn store, and it is a wonderfully written book, filled with the wit and insight that we have come to expect from Mark Steyn. I highly recommend the book.

[passionfruit]

For your Mark Steyn ping list.

BTW, Mark also has a facebook page where he posts links to his columns, TV and radio appearances, etc. https://www.facebook.com/MarkSteynOnline

[Servant of the Cross]

Vintage Steyn. He certainly knows of what he talks about here. Usually I love his humor but this is quite sad. Poor Britain.

Please dear God, do not permit America to fall into this "logical dead end of the Nanny State", where "Big Government means small citizens."

[Yardstick]

*bump*

[Travis McGee]

Brillian essay. I was going to copy a paragraph, but it’s all a must-read.

[Vision]

bm

[flowerplough]

“Big Government means small citizens: it corrodes the integrity of a people, catastrophically. Within living memory, the city in flames on our TV screens every night governed a fifth of the Earth’s surface and a quarter of its population.”

[GeronL]

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization's descent into barbarism

Theodore Dalyrimple (sic) is good at that too

[GeronL]

Mark Steyn is indispensible

[GeronL]

“In Britain, everything is policed except crime.”

[Retired Greyhound]

He’s at the top of his game right now.

My favorite columnist.

[squarebarb]

Dalrymple is fantastic. As is Steyn. Steyn is funnier.

[GeronL]

Mine too. At least Steyn makes us laugh into depression

[EyeGuy]

No racial correlation noted by Steyn.

Unlike the obvious dichotomy in the US, perhaps in the UK there isn’t one?

[B-Cause]

“Big Government means small citizens: it corrodes the integrity of a people, catastrophically. Within living memory, the city in flames on our TV screens every night governed a fifth of the Earth’s surface and a quarter of its population.”

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Click here for a great article by Max Hastings.

[whitedog57]

Steyn is correct. Look at this guy’s blog about government debt and entitlements to see why something will happen when they get cut back.

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com

[whitedog57]

Steyn is correct. Look at this guy’s blog about government debt and entitlements to see why something will happen when they get cut back.

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com

[LibertarianLiz]

As part of my promotional efforts, I chanced to find myself on a TV show the other day with an affable liberal who argued that what Obama needed to do was pass another trillion-dollar – or, better yet, multi-trillion – stimulus. I think not.

I believe this was on Varney & Co., which I watch daily. The "affable liberal" was Ellis Hennican, and the look on Steyn's face when he started in on what O needed to do was MORE stimulus, was just priceless.

[PogySailor]

This is the logical dead end of the Nanny State. When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the "abolition of want" to be accomplished by "co-operation between the State and the individual." In attempting to insulate the citizenry from life's vicissitudes, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. As I write in my book: "Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity."

And we are following right behind them:

Cell Phones For The Poor On The Taxpayers Dime

[LibertarianLiz]

Great article. I think Rush talked about it on one of his shows this week.