Book Review: "America Alone" by Mark Steyn (2006)

The Rowdy Roddy Piper of conservative writing, Mark Steyn, has offered this, his first major release, as a warning to the West. Basically, what it all comes down to is this: we're screwed, and it's not because of pollution, a limited food supply, or any other "the sky is falling" type of doomsday prognostication we've been warned about over the last 30 years. It's about demographics. What Steyn argues is that the low birthrate amongst countries in the Judeo-Christian West, particularly in Europe, stands in stark contrast to the massive population growth in the Islamic world.

This, in and of itelf, is not necessarily a bad thing, but consider that the Islamic world as it is now has not exactly demonstrated a strong commitment to the values of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom of religion, all values which the West was built on, not to mention gender equality, the non-violent settling of disagreements, and scientific inquiry, to name a few. Then, take a look at the addictive nanny-state that we've built for ourselves, especially in social-democratic countries (pensions, health care, etc.) in addition to the exorbitant debt burden we face (one estimate suggests each Canadian taxpayer owes $171,000 each). Who's going to pay for all this in the face of a declining birthrate? Without a fundamental rethink of the role of government (not bloody likely), the slack has to be picked up by those born elsewhere, many of whom were born into and educated by radical Islamist regimes across the Middle East and in North Africa.

Combine all of those phenomena with the fact that in the West, the secular-progressive-multicult movement has an inordinate amount of influence. Look at the controversy and hand-wringing over the Mohammed cartoons earlier this year. Look at the discussion over sharia law as recommended by former Ontario NDP cabinet minister Marion Boyd. In a healthy, self-confident society, this wouldn't have even made it to the discussion table. Add this to the general reluctance of the Muslim community to speak out against the Toronto 17 and the terror threat against Heathrow airliners this past summer, to take but two examples.

The only country who doesn't face a major demographic challenge in the not-too-distant future is America, because Americans are (currently) reproducing at a rate that will replace the current population. Moreover, like in Australia, apologists for terror have not quite gained the traction that they have in western Europe, especially. However, the writing is on the wall for the West, more broadly, and this includes Canada.

To summarize Steyn's argument directly, I'll quote a passage here from page 196:

... (a)s became clear very quickly after the 2005 Tube bombings, that's not quite the world we live in. It's not black (the bomber) or white (the rest of us); there's a lot of murky shades of gray in between; the terrorist bent on devastation and destruction prowls the streets, while around him are a significant number of young people urging him on, and around them a larger group of young male co-religionists gleefully celebrating mass murder, and acts committed in their name, and around them a much larger group of "moderates" who stand silent at the acts committed in their name, and around them a mesh of religious and community leaders openly inciting treason against the state, and around them another mesh of religious and community leaders who serve as apologists for the inciters, and around them a netowrk of professional identity-group grievance-mongers adamant that they're the real victims, and around them a vast mass of elite opinion in the meida and elsewhere too squeamish about ethno-cultural matters to confront reality, and around them a political establishment desperate to pretend this is just a managerial problem that can be finessed away with a few new laws and a bit of community outreach.

The truth, as Steyn concludes, is that there's one way out of this problem, and that's this: Islam has to reform itself.

Chock full of statistical evidence, dimly humourous and unapologetically controversial, "America Alone" is one-third of the triple-threat triumverate for current affairs publishing in 2006 along with Bruce Bawer's "While Europe Slept" and Melanie Phillips' "Londonistan".

Overall rating: 9/10 (with a loss of one mark for being a little repetitive at times).

(Side note: I met Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online, the other day while disembarking a plane. He noticed that I was reading this book, and I quipped, "He's not quite the happy warrior any more", as "Happy Warrior" was the title of Steyn's column for NRO a couple of years back.

I also told Goldberg to keep fighting the good fight in trying to keep the GOP on the small-government track. He said he'd do his best.

Just thought I'd share.)