Europe is Finished

LIMEYS et.al.

Europe is Finished, Predicts Mark Steyn November 14, 2006 * The nanny state infantilized Europeans, making them worry about such pseudo-issues as climate change, while feminizing the males. * It also neutered them, annexing "most of the core functions of adulthood," starting with the instinct to breed. From about 1980, birth rates plummeted, leaving an inadequate base for today's workers to receive their pensions. * Structured on a pay-as-you-go basis, it amounted to an inter-generational Ponzi scheme, where today's workers depend on their children for their pensions. * The demographic collapse meant that the indigenous peoples of countries like Russia, Italy, and Spain are at the start of a population death spiral. * It led to a collapse of confidence that in turn bred "civilizational exhaustion," leaving Europeans unprepared to fight for their ways. Aug. 9, 2009 update: Steyn's pessimism is penetrating the Muslim world, where it has a rather more positive impact. For one example, see "الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية الإسلامية" by columnist Hasan 'Asiri in today's Al-'Arabiyanewspaper. After going through the requisite numbers, however, 'Asiri ends on a less-than triumphant note: السؤال الأكبر: عندما يحكم المسلمون الأرض هل سيكونون قادرين على بناء الحضارة؟ أم أن السيطرة ستكون عددية فقط؟ Big question: When Muslims rule the Earth, will they be capable to build civilization? Or will their rule only be one of numbers? Mark Steyn, political columnist and cultural critic, has written a remarkable book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (Regnery). He combines several virtues uncommonly found together – humor, accurate reportage, and deep thinking – then applies these to what is arguably the most consequential issue of our time: the Islamist threat to the West. Mr. Steyn offers a devastating thesis but presents it in bits and pieces, so I shall pull it together here. He begins with the legacy of two totalitarianisms. Traumatized by the electoral appeal of fascism, post-World War II European states were constructed in a top-down manner "so as to insulate almost entirely the political class from populist pressures." As a result, the establishment has "come to regard the electorate as children." [FULL] So, how're they doing so far? I don't think anyone expected ten years ago that the only push-back would come from ... France and Poland?!