Mark Steyn: The strange death of the liberal West

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 03/22/05 | Mark Steyn

[Edmund]

Actually, that's "Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Short." That was also the name of The American Spectator's law firm for a while.

[Billthedrill]

Your own namesake forced a good deal of legislation on this topic in the early days of the Roman Empire. Seems Augustus figured out there were too many little barbarians running through Europe and too few little Romans. He turned out to be right, of course. Perhaps the coming Moslem majority will be as kind to today's Europeans as the Goths were way back then. And perhaps not.

[Richard Kimball]

That's a pretty scathing indictment. Unfortunately, it's true for many.

[hattend]

Bump to read later

[Logophile]

6) Eliminate tax exemptions for non-Judeo-Christian faiths.

Would Mormonism qualify as "Judeo-Christian" in your scheme?

[elhombrelibre]

He is a genius.

[FastCoyote]

"Liberals are abstractly compassionate and personally hedonistic. "

Well said. in fact, the liberal philosophy now falls apart at so many levels that it is like going to sea in a boat whose skin is made of burlap sacks.

I just wonder when they will wake up, like Rip van Winkles, from a hundred years of sleep.

[GOP_1900AD]

A sodden image, to be sure!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

There was an interesting article a few months back, I believe in New Republic.

The French have been trying all sorts of goverment programs to encourage childbirth.

The end result is a wash.

Basically all the government can do is make childbirth and childrearing a little less expensive and a little less encumbering to the parents. It's still easier to stay childless.

So this goes to Steyn's point which is that we have created a culture and mindset that is indirectly opposed to children.

I imagine this is where we will need something like a Brave New World where society will theoretically get a continuous flow of factory designed and factory reared children without anyone having to care for them except those that are paid to. An endless sea of consumers and producers and taxpayers without having to clean diapers or fend off projectile baby food!

[JusPasenThru]

See my freepmail. Mail me back if that didn't clear things up a bit.

[satchmodog9]

another great article

[jwalburg]

Is it soilent? I thought it was Soylent. And isn't it part of Future Shock?

[jwalburg]

True, but that is somewhat counterbalanced by converting conservative children once they enter college.

[PhilipFreneau]

Mark is truly a legend, and forever shall be.

[tiki]

In a few decades you will be able to euthanize children right before their 13th birthday so you don't have to put up with the cost and worry of having a teenager around.

[altura]

ping to read when I'm not half asleep.

[clearsight]

I am not sure how it is spelled, but I do believe that the movie was a stand alone. Charlton Heston played the main character of a police officer of some kind.Future Shock was another title altogether.

[goldstategop]

Yep. Its the demography. The one thing liberals and radical Islamists have in common is a fanatical obssession with auto-cide. They just dispose of their future adherents differently. The result's the same: no one's going to be around to populate their utopias. Progressivism in its various guises meets its real enemy: its lack of enduring progeny. You might say not just the death of the West Mark Steyn has in mind but the death of the radical Islamist regimes around the planet. A healthy and flourishing civilization depends on bringing in more people to make it grow as well as to sustain what it has on hand.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Gerfang]

To really save Western (European) culture we'd have to do the following:

Do you really believe you can legislate life from those who wish death?

[TomSmedley]

To all: Go check out the movie "Soilent Green"...

Actually, accurate portrayal of present-tense socialist orders. The one thing all "overpopulated" countries have in common is socialism. At one point, half the unmarried ladies over the age of 16 in Petrograd were prostitutes.