Mark Steyn: It’s the demography, stupid

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 11/12/05 | Mark Steyn

[Kitten Festival]

Scrap the EU and come join our new free trade pact instead. We can have 'The Anglophone Pact' with Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and Yanks and we'll let the Canadians in too if they ever wise up.

[Tax-chick]

Things that make you go "Hmmmmm" :-).

[goldstategop]

Europe's decline has been breathtaking. A century ago, Europe mattered. It was the Europe of high culture, a sustained population boom and a Europe that projected military might in its own heartland and bestrode colonies across the globe. For lack of a better word, Europe was a colossus of importance, its growth magnified by centuries of relentless expansion. It had confidence in itself, faith in Christian certitude and faith in the future. In the space of hundred years all that has changed. No one today talks of European culture, the continent is on its demographic deathbed with no significant means of projecting influence abroad and shorn of its reflected imperial glory. Europe is insignificant in the century's politics even as it contracts upon itself. It confronts deep pessimism, compounded by a post-Christian ethic that insist the present is more important than the longue duree. There is no hope things will get better. In America, we no longer look to Europe as we used to because Europe no longer draws attention to itself and these days the atavistic sign of European weakness is is reflected in European elites living off the accumulated cultural heritage rather than preparing for the future. In the space of less than a dozen sentences I have chronicled both the height and the low of European existence. Its a reminder of just how much things can change in the blink of an eye. Whether Europe can save itself is entirely up to the Europeans; no one else can perform the task for them and the French government's response to the violence engulfing the country has merely underlined that Europe's real problem isn't one of the equitable distribution of economic and social benefits but rather a question of values. Who are Europeans? Now we get to the heart of the question both the Continent's sclerotized elites and their fellow travelers in the Western MSM seem rather desperate to avoid answering. One can avoid having to deal with Islam's claims with a desperate resort to short-gap measures and a good dose of self-denial but sooner or later an exhausted civilization must either surrender its birth-right to a new comer or find its way back from the abysss. That is the conundrum that Europe now faces in our time.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[MadIvan]

If the Continent falls into disarray, and refugees start to flood us - I'm heading for Australia.

Regards, Ivan

[Brian Allen]

<< It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the stupidity, economists — the stupidity of thinking you can buck demography .....

It’s not easy [To lob] a Molotov cocktail into a police station and then [Hobble] ... on your Zimmer frame across the street before the searing heat of the explosion melts your hip replacement. Civil disobedience is a young man’s game. >>

This week French "youth," next week Belgium and the week after that, the Dutch. Then back full circle to burn Birmingham, burn and backpacked-bomb bearing bovver-booted boys blowing up the bloody Brits in Bakers Street, Bayswater and Bethnal Green and all of Old Europe's down the pissoir.

Vale, Enoch Powell.

Thanks for the ping, Pokes.

[Schnucki]

an extra E100 million for ‘associations’ in said neighbourhoods, etc.

Midnight basketball for muslims?

[goldstategop]

As I mentioned in my mini-essay in post 83 for the benefit of posterity, its not really a question of material deprivation. Its the values, stupid. Mark Steyn would surely agree the matter to the larger picture. Who is Europe? There used to be a Christian answer but in the post-Christian continent, no one knows. There isn't even a French identity. That's what the pan-European project has done in the name of abolishing nationalism; its enfeebled governments and stripped entire populations of the will to defend a nation-state already decreed to be extinct in the new world. A century from now if Eurabia triumphs, all this will be seen as a transition stage from a by-gone age to a new age.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[alwaysconservative]

Wow! What a great analysis! (Bowing down repeatedly.)

[highlander_UW]

At the very least, European citizens should recognise that the governing class has failed, that the conventional wisdom has run its course, and that it is highly unlikely that those culturally confident Muslims will wish to assimilate with anything as shrivelled and barren as contemporary European identity.

Europeans...and particularly the French fail to grasp that while they have excluded the "non-French stock" because of the racism inherent in the French culture it is the racism and cultural arrogance within Islam that makes the Islamic masses uninterested in assimilating into French culture. The appeasement efforts are destined to fail in the long run.

[jjmcgo]

My reaction was this: Oh great, put 20,000 Muslims into the French government.

[America's Resolve]

Yup. close it down.

The native french are going to run away like the proverbial rats deserting a sinking ship, then the ship will sink, faster.

[gcruse]

Oh, man Steyne kills me - could you imagine him on the same stage as Ann Coulter - together they would be "wet-my-pants" hillarious.

I've often said Fox News should give Mark his own show.  Thinking your idea over, I'm beginning to understand why they don't.

At first glance, it would be a brilliant pairing.  But having seen Mark a few times on television, I thought he came off as a tamer, much less vigorous, softer version of his written persona.

Mark may be a top notch studio artist, but an indifferent improviser, a studied Rembrandt, not a graffitti Coulter.

Coulter comes off as shrill in her books, electric in person.  Mark Steyn may be best at laying down a line and feathering it into a masterpiece, something created offline and published when its ready.  Sure enough, he's the best there at what he does today, a combination of Mark Twain, HL Mencken and PJ O'Rourke.

But alive and off the cuff, I don't think he can produce his pyrotechnics steadily enough to keep butts in their seats.

[gridlock]

Steyn is smokin' today. If you got him too close to a Renault, that darn car would just spontaneously combust!

[timsbella]

He's brilliant! As ever, thanks for the ping.

[Dog Gone]

Christian values build civilizations and vibrant, energetic, and prosperous cultures.

I don't know if that's true or not. Most of the empires in world history were pagan.

[Cowboy Bob]

Right now, the US produces roughly 25 per cent of global GDP. Most analysts figure that by mid-century it will still be producing 25 per cent, and so will India and China, but Europe will be down to 10 per cent.

If the US were to force the Chinese to strengthen their currency (Yuan), then their economy would implode, and the world demand for crude oil would collapse (together with prices).

The Yuan needs to be strengthened by 40%. If the Chinese don't act, the US should impose a tariff.

[daviddennis]

Since it seemed to stretch credibility that someone would write an 823 page book on Poetry, I checked.

Well, Mark was wrong. Yes, it really exists, but it's 822 pages, not 823. Maybe he got an English edition or something.

Here's the Google translation of the listing

I figured some people might find this entertaining. I'm disappointed there are no reader reviews. Perhaps nobody manages to get through the whole thing?

I would think asking someone to read 823 pages of de Villepin's writing would be illegal by the Geneva convention or something, but that's just me.

D

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Steyn ping...

[gcruse]

Man, I can't think of anything more futile than reading machine translation of poetry.

[FormerACLUmember]

Paris 2006: After the brave, bold French have finished negotiating a surrender with le IslamoThugs, Dominique de Villepin and Jacque Chirac are beheaded.