Posted on 10/11/2006 8:36:31 PM PDT by AnnaZ
"If Darkness Can Dawn"
Mr. Steyn's columns, to me at least, regardless of the seriousness of their content, have always had a kind of ten-dollar-Sapphire-and-tonic-by-the-pool feel to them, languid and worthy of savoring. America Alone is quite different -- urgent and unrelenting.
One of the many great things about being a dedicated Mark Steyn column connoisseur is the reduced waiting time between fixes -- in an all-the-world's-news-can-be-your-news world, the "one man global content provider" certainly churns them out with a breath-taking rapidity, and whether the publisher is in Canada or Australia, the United States or the United Kingdom, the faithful reader need not be in any of them, yet enjoy the fruits of all. I do not how he possibly managed to still knock out a book, but he has, and consider this reader knocked out too.
The full title of his new book is America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, and the dire tone of the title is more than amply justified on the inside. That's not the good news.
For the groupie like me, there will be a familiar line here, a beloved Steynism there, but overarchingly the result is that the thoughts and observations and ideas behind his columns, fleshed out and full-bodied, are less of a venti-latte companion and more of a call to arms. Don't get me wrong, this is still the same smart and sexy Steyn, he's still funny and charmingly irreverent, but he's seen the writing on the wall, and many others best see it as well. This is the book you buy two copies of, one for yourself, one to hand out or accidentally-leave-on-purpose somewhere. It is, quite simply, that thorough, and that important.
For those who may have read his wake-up-call column, It's The Demography, Stupid, the realizations of that foray have contributed much, it appears, to the birth of this book. As the title of the book suggests, things look nasty and we're on our own. Actually, that's an optimistic way of looking at it, for as the contents suggest, more stands in our way than just a bloodthirsty, implacable enemy.
"September 11, 2001, was not 'the day everything changed,' but the day that revealed how much had already changed." In the years that have followed we have seen even more clearly the face of our enemy, the infiltration of that enemy into the centers of Western culture, and the strength of our stupidest, intractable principles -- the enemy grows, heads fly off, we wring hands and shrink and we blame ourselves for the madness. It isn't shocking that on September 10th few people were losing sleep over Islamic terrorism, what is stunning now is that still too few people are. What has grown is not our resolve, but the list of Muslim grievance agencies and we're too naive or polite to point out who the real victims actually are.
By "we", I mean western civilization, and do not include the "we" that would actually find a website such as this to read this review on. That "we" is the last best hope, it seems, dragging our knuckles to victory, while most of western civ is nanny-stating its way to oblivion. Besides American breeders -- and Utah, take a bow -- the rest of the culture feeders are too busy loving themselves to consider sharing the joy with progeny. If our usual retort to the elitists has been "screw off and die" it had best soon become "screw or die off", and hope they don't take the rest of us down with them.
Apparently, the post-coital end-product, a child, has gone the same way as the post-coital cigarette, up in smoke, not hip, not cool. Let's give us nothing to talk about, or talk over. Or talk to. Nanny-state amenities and afterlife-free secularism have made this all moot -- for the modern man all that matters now is an "eternal present tense".
Just as the nanny-state has given most western nations "annexation by government of most of the core functions of adulthood", America's taking care of Europe's defense has "absolved them of the traditional responsibilities of nationhood." And they insult us for it, and sneer at us, and our own people demand we become more like them (see Jean François Kerry for details).
The ideals “we” uphold, and that President Bush claims we fight for, come across to these types as jingoistic hokisms because, winning on them against the Left before, we never properly defeated the enemy's reputation, nor left any "sense on the Continent that our Big Idea had beaten their Big Idea." As Martin Malia writes in his foreword to The Black Book of Communism, "[a]ny realistic accounting of Communist crime would effectively shut the door on Utopia... [a]nd so all comrade-questers after historical truth should gird their loins for a very Long March indeed before Communism is accorded its fair share of absolute evil." And thus we deal still today with the offshoot of this ideology, and it stands in the way of effectively fighting, and, intentionally or unintentionally, aids a resurgence of, one of the foulest enemies Human Liberty has encountered.
Steyn writes, "The political class and the media seem to serve as mutual reinforcers of their own obsolete illusions," and delusions, too, if you ask me. When it comes to this new (but I mean old) enemy, what, honestly, is there to like? It's not like they see a distinction between the multicultural CAIR-speed dialer at the New York Times and the flag-waving NASCAR follower. We're all infidels, all deserving of death, preferably in hideous ways.
A while back a Democratic Underground denizen posited that he (she? he/she?) was going to get a gun. Dozens of replies followed in sympathy or similarity, they were going to stop the fundies, fight the Republican army, and stymie all of Falwell's followers. Not one reply mentioned the only folks out there that actually really want to kill them all. It was hysterical, yet terrifying in the realization of how extreme these delusions run. Not one mention of Islamists. Not one.
By the way, these are the folks supporting the opposition in the upcoming elections. They take after their European counterparts, those who demand, in media, for example, "public interest criteria... code-speak for a kind of easy listening tyranny." Ban “Swift Boat” ads, stop “The Path to /11”, it's a religion of peace, equal time, EQUAL TIME!!! As Mr. Steyn writes, "there's very little difference between living under Exquisitely Refined Multicultural Sensitivity and sharia." Well, 'til the heads come off, of course, as they are wont to do under the latter.
And what about that enemy? As Steyn so eloquently points out, "[i]n our time, even the most fascistic ideologies have been canny enough to cover their darker impulses in bathetic labels." These guys don't bother with such sophistries. They say they want to kill us, and by gum, they do! Maybe these silly leftists are so used to lying they can't even recognize the truth when it's handed to them stark and plain.
But to those who can see, the time to act is now. These are not "dervishes" and "brigands" in faraway places, this is "state-of-the-art-primitive" -- clitorectomies and ATM cards, beheadings and cell phones, camel rides and 747s (one way, please). They're as close as the nearest runway, as ubiquitous as the next interfaith meeting. (Good God, can you stand hearing about another interfaith meeting?!)
Regardless, as Mr. Steyn points out, and which you'll need to read it all to learn, there are options, there is slim hope. So buckle up, boys and girls, the ride will be bumpy, but the journey is unavoidable. Not simply because our survival depends upon it, but because that which is in us that is noble demands it.
LOL. You're probably right. Here's the Steyn line that pretty much put the fork in any thoughts I may have entertained about writing seriously, or at least weekly:The Chairman, alas, will not be giving terrorism up any time soon, not when Saudi TV has just had a hugely successful charity telethon raising US$56-million for the families of Palestinian "martyrs." King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah both chipped in. One Saudi Princess donated both her Rolls and her ox, a double jackpot sure to inspire any West Bank suicide bomber hoping to transform his relicts into a two-car family. Maybe they'll make it a weekly show: Who Wants To Be A Million Air Particles?
With stuff like that available, why clog the pixels.
Regarding my move to Austin, I haven't regretted it, not even for a nanosecond. I'll FReepmail you details tomorrow.
= )
Next time post a picture.
;^)
Best of luck with the 15-year-plan. At least you have one.
=: o
(LOL)
Reading now. Welcome to Texas.
Did you ever see this picture?
http://snakebytesforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10549/Bill_and_Katrina_5apr06zz.jpg
Yes, I have a 15-year plan. I just have to make it work. To some extent, I feel pretty good about it, but I've learned that many things can derail the best plans.
Bill
Nah, nah. Sure, he is brilliant, but we'd be lonely if we only had one man to read. Let him be inspiration to you.
I am really looking forward to hearing how your family made this move. I am sick of treading agua here.
I named her Katrina after the storm. I've wanted a ball python since I was a kid. I've done the research and almost made the purchase about half a dozen times. I've always ended up talking myself out of the purchase. About a month or so after the hurricane, I started down the path again and just kept going. Maybe I wouldn't have gone all the way if the storm hadn't unsettled my routine a bit.
However, something to think about in the interim...
If we view FR as a microcosm of America and if my temporary absence influences you personally, then how much stronger should we look at the upcoming elections, comparatively speaking of course.
Just imagine our nation bereft of right-wing thoughts or leadership for several years if the election goes to the Dems.
And now I'm off to continue my "diet".
HA!!
Wise you.
"BTW, I do appreciate the sentiment, though I don't feel I deserve such praise."
You've earned whatever respect you receive from me my [new?] friend, humility notwithstanding. {g}
"I do tend to "feed" too readily at times."
We all do, gotta *eat* y'know.
Right?
"However, something to think about in the interim... If we view FR as a microcosm of America and if my temporary absence influences you personally..."
While your -- & a few others -- presence and/or absence has a degree of influence over me (here at this forum) we cannot forget I/we are still individuals.
Possessed of individual opinions, tastes & most other aspects of this human experience.
In fact our individuality is really all there is separating us from the Liberal-Socialist left.
Everything else we do and are is after the fact of either our being individuals or a member of a pack.
Follow?
OBTW not to disrespect the forum but FR in my never be humble opin doesn't even qualify as a micro-mini-microcosm of anything in the scheme of things.
At best it's a congregation of supposedly like-minded peoples where given what one actually experiences "like-minded" is completely up for debate.
Let us say it's a gathering individuals & leave it go at that.
Some things are best left undefined.
"...then how much stronger should we look at the upcoming elections, comparatively speaking of course."
No more or less than any other election pitting "us" against "them".
In November we must go to the polls & cast our vote for what we feel is right.
It's never been any simpler than that in spite of what the quisling mediots and/or zealots -- on either side of the ideological continuum -- try to make of it.
It'll take a hellovalot more than one or a million to stampede me & I pray you don't permit yourself to get swept up in the bullshit, either.
Don't fire until you see the *whites* of their eyes. ;^)
"Just imagine our nation bereft of right-wing thoughts or leadership for several years if the election goes to the Dems."
Sun will rise in the east in my world, regardless whose running the country.
I prefer those in charge be of the right & will do everything I can to that end up to & including casting my ballot.
What I will not do is *cut* my wrists OR pitch a fit if I or "my guys" don't win.
Nope.
What I will do will be to begin anew preparing for the next time I meet the Liberal-Socialists in "battle", just as they're going to [do].
"And now I'm off to continue my 'diet'."
HA!!
Good for you. ;^)
While you fast I'm going to stock the wood bin, & afterward?
...have me a big, FAT Churchill. ;^)
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