"If Darkness Can Dawn": FReeper Review of Mark Steyn's "America Alone"

October 11th, 2006 | AnnaZ

[AnnaZ]

"If Darkness Can Dawn"


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.

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.

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.

[AnnaZ]

Will books/articles of this nature make it across the "great divide"? That is, will those on the left and a growing number of appeasers on the right be moved to greater introspection?

That's the great hope. But even if they don't, we have to win anyway.

I mean after all, when a group declares war on us and our way of life, shouldn't we actually do something besides praise the foundation from whence it springs??? ROP my arse!

It is incredibly silly, is it not?

Oh well... "Onward Christian Soldiers", and all that other politically incorrect crazy stuff.

[Salem]

Lookee' here.  

When AnnaZ says buy the book, any self-respecting FReeper follows through.

Annaz I'll put it at the top of my must read list!

---

AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~
Honored member of FReeper Leapfrog's "Enemy of Islam" list.
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...  by backhoe
Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
"PLAES DO NOT TOCH THE WAR"  by AnnaZ
One FReeper On The Line  by SNOWFLAKE
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

"It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Paleologus - as quoted by Pope Benedict XVI

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[BraveMan]

Landru, thought you weren't too particularly fond of Mark Steyn's work . . .

Thanks to AnnaZ's rather eloquent review I decided to purchase this on the oft chance I'll find the opportunity to read something other than a technical manual within the next three months.

Thanks for the ping.

[AnnaZ]

I always wondered what would happen if we said we wouldn't get involved if any european countries went after each other.

We'll see what happens in the (next few) years to come. Some in Europe are oh-so-slowly waking up to the mess they have within their own borders, and they will eventually have to deal with it. They don't need to go outside of them to look for trouble.

[AnnaZ]

Gotta get it.

Do.

= )

[AnnaZ]

Yes, Austin is rather liberal, but it's the best combination of outdoor/urban life ever. Great food, great culture, great scenery. And the more non-leftarded that move here, the better.

= )

[AnnaZ]

In life, there is soap.

I'm going to have to admit that that one went right over my head.

: \

[AnnaZ]

I'll put it at the top of my must read list!

You will not be disappointed. Thanks for stopping by.

= )

[stephenjohnbanker]

ANNA Z is an American treasure! Thanks for the ping, my good friend!!

B T T T

[Watery Tart]

AnnaZ:
Thanks for the ping, and link to the autographed copies! (or whatever)

gonzo:
“Cry havoc and let slip the war of dogs!” –Mark Steyn

[diamond6]

bttt

[FBD]

excellant review, and very interesting exchange, lan.

-thanks for the ping to this.

[L,TOWM]

If it is the one on the west side don't try too hard.

If it is the one south of town, go if you have to crawl there and save some room for berry cobbler.

[AnnaZ]

I decided to purchase this on the oft chance I'll find the opportunity to read something other than a technical manual within the next three months.

Yikes, I'd be pulling for you if I had only been recommending the funny pages.

"Technical manual". I think that's the thing that comes with something electronic that immediately goes into that miscellaneous drawer in the kitchen.

;^)

[AnnaZ]

Thanks for the ping, and link to the autographed copies! (or whatever)

Mine came from the publisher, so no autograph. Consider yourself fortunate.

= )

[AnnaZ]

Thank you.

[AnnaZ]

If it is the one south of town, go if you have to crawl there and save some room for berry cobbler.

It's the south one. But it's also a football practice night. Thus the dilemma. Picture me scrambling.

= )

[Landru]

"I understand your points regarding cannibalism, and it is sad, and you are right."

I'm right, huh.
Thanks.

"Now is really the time to put personal differences aside and face the real enemy..."

Preaching to the chorus, Anna.
You know that. I know that. So what would you guess is the hangup, then? {~strictly rhetorical...}

"-- the black and white one, not the shades of gray. We can get back to petty infighting later."

Nothing petty whatsoever when our "fighters" have been taken out of the "fight", by the right.
In case you've not noticed many of the Rights best fighters have already fallen, many more than I could list incidentally.

No matter, moving on from petty concerns to more urgent matters.

...have yourself a nice day, kid.

[Landru]

"Landru, thought you weren't too particularly fond of Mark Steyn's work..."

Look BM, I'm *cool* towards the man because I'm not real fond -- particularly or otherwise -- of anyone criticizing our POTUS *or* nation.
Just ornery, that way.

Hope the explanation clarifies my position.

...for you. ;^)

[BraveMan]

Today's reading assignment:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/in/1794-in096_-en-p.pdf

Sigh . . .