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America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (平装)
by Mark Steyn
| Category:
American politics, World politics, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 298.00
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¥ 238.00
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MSL rating:
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Witty and knowledgeable, Mark Steyn shines a bright and unforgiving light on the West's "Death by Demographics." |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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R. Hayden (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
This is a very important book. It should be read by every American who loves and wants to preserve our western culture. Steyn has done a very thorought job of researching the information contained in this book and presented this information in a coherent and easy to understand format. Radical forms of Islam are sweeping through Europe and will completely transform that region is just a couple more generations due to the deteriorating European birthrate. The western culture of tolerance is their greatest weapon. Those same radical Islamic forces will increasingly become problematic in our own country, unless the American People recognize the changes that are now occuring all over America. We need Steyns voice on the nation stage.
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Francis Monaldo (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
The world is not at a loss for doomsday scenarios. During the 1970s, we were all concerned that the world would end in a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. We were told that would exhaust the world's oil and food resources before the current century. New worries have ascended to the top of the list of worries recently. There is always the possibility of a large asteroid smashing into the Earth and wiping out most of the life on the surface, much as a similar asteroid probably accounted for the rapid extinction of dinosaurs. Evidence is accumulating that the Earth is warming auguring significant climate change effects.
Of course, the danger of nuclear war with the USSR was real and we fortunately avoided it. This does mean that the dangers of nuclear weapons have entirely been eliminated. Predictions of natural resource shortages have proven unduly pessimistic, or at least premature. While it is certain that a large asteroid will, at some time in the future, be on a collision course with the Earth, the probability of an impact in the foreseeable future is tiny. The net effect of climate change is still speculative.
To these concerns, Mark Steyn adds one more in his American Alone. Steyn's thesis begins with unassailable fact that much of the Western World, particularly in Europe is in demographic collapse. In order for any society to maintain it population it must have a fertility rate of about 2.1, i.e., women on average have 2.1 children. The European Union, as a whole, suffers under a weak fertility rate of 1.47 with some countries like Italy and Spain suffering with anemic fertility rates of 1.33 and 1.28, respectively. Literally, there are places in Europe which will become depopulated of ethnic European in one or two generations.
There are at least a couple of consequences of a declining and aging population. First, the generous social welfare states of Europe are dependent upon an influx of young people to support the pensions and increased medical expenses of retirees. Without such an influx these countries face economic stagnation and declining living standards. Second, culture is a reflection of the integrated perceptions and attitudes of its citizens. A demographically young culture is innovative and energetic culture, whereas a demographically older culture is likely to be risk adverse and focused on maintenance of pension checks.
Now, it is always possible that the fertility rates in Europe will undergo dramatic reversal. However, these rates have declined over decades and it difficult to foresee a circumstance that would change current trends. Moreover, Steyn argues that the European social welfare states are themselves nurture suicidal attitudes to reproduction. He writes:
"...a variety of government interventions - state pensions, subsidized higher education, higher taxes to pay for everything - has so ruptured the traditional patterns of inter-generational solidarity that Continentals now exist almost entirely in the present tense culture of complete self-absorption.''
The Muslim population is increasing the Europe due to both immigration and the high-fertility rates of immigrant populations. Steyn questions whether Europe can undergo dramatic demographic change and not undergo dramatic political change. Thanks to lavish funding of radical mosques by Saudi Arabia and others, the Muslim populations in Europe and elsewhere are becoming radicalized. Certainly, there are moderate Muslims and they probably constitute a majority, but radical Islam represents the Zeitgeist of the Islamic world.
Moreover, the self-absorption of modern secular welfare states saps culture confidence. What Steyn calls "culture exhaustion'' will make it impossible for Europeans to resist the Islamic demands for deference. In Steyn's assessment, Europe's demographic and cultural death spiral is too far along to reverse. Before the end this century, there will parts of Europe where Sharia law is enforced. Great societies are not killed, but rather commit suicide.
Steyn writes American Alone with cleverness and humor that belies his deeply pessimistic message. America may soon represent the only remnant of Western ideals, of liberty and personal independence. The only hope Steyn offers is that the example of Europe's demise will make obvious even to the American Left, the necessity to resist the clash of cultures. After all, a world dominated by Sharia law as practiced by radical Islamists is not that will be hospitable to gay or abortion rights, the key concerns of the modern American Left. It is not one where women will be treated with equal rights and dignity. It will represent a return to the Dark Ages, before the Renaissance and before the Enlightenment. As Steyn asserts, "...much of what we call the Western World will no survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear with our lifetimes.''
Abraham Lincoln described the American Civil War as a great test of democracy and liberty that would determine "if any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.'' The United States represents are far freer country with a far less protective welfare state. Nonetheless, the United States, over the decades, has moved steadily closer to the European model, though among modern industrial states it is still "exceptional.'' If Steyn is correct in his assessment that European suicidal fertility rates are an inevitable outcome of the "Eutopian'' welfare state, then the clash with radical Islam represents a test to determine whether a society so structured can long endure. |
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Stevan Horning (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
Mark Steyn's well-reasoned predictions of "Eurabia" in five years signify startlingly credible Reality Therapy, and his logically satisfying prescription for change in final chapters is well worth the book's price. Steyn's passion arises from well-researched and packaged demography, simple birthrates and other vital statistics. The inexorable pressure of numbers soon will change the face of Europe as we know it, at least concerning "who calls the shots." If you feel gloomy at the prospect of the USA alone, surrounded by hostile peoples captivated by a seventh-century religious heresy, take heart! Steyn maps out ten or 12 remedial steps the US citizens and their government agencies can take that can pierce the darkness and keep us hopeful. It takes a lively mind to keep seeing hope in the picture Steyn paints of encroaching Islam. The war is ideological in nature, a war we have not yet begun to fight (as John Paul Jones once said). |
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Colin Fergus (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
This should be required reading for every voter in what we used to call the Free World. Mark Steyn's witty, often acerbic style makes this a very easy read,and makes accessible in a few hundred pages the most incisive anaylsis of the challenge facing the West. I think if anything the book is a little on the optimistic side. The mid term elections suggest at least half the US has no idea of the threat that is daily working to destroy everything one would hope the US still believes in. If evidence were needed of the denial of much of the US elite, try to find a review in the New York Times. Tell your Senators. Congressman, Governor, and mayor to read this book and let you know what they are doing to safeguard our and our children's futures.
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Jerry Saperstein (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
As anyone who reads his newspaper and magazine columns knows, Mark Steyn is both a very bright and very funny guy. Steyn has become increasingly concerned over the Islamic threat to the world. "America Alone" is his explanation of the threat. Yes, Steyn is funny - which makes his message all the more horrible to contemplate.
Iran declared war on the west in 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini announced his intention of conquering the west for Islam. Since that time many Muslims - no one knows with any certainty how many - have taken the message to heart. radicalized it and devoted themselves to destroying the west. Tens of thousands of innocent women, children and men have so far been murdered in that war. Some victims we all know of - the thousands dead in the World Trade Center, the filmmaker Theo van Gogh stabbed in the street - while others are almost anonymous, such as the Belgium bus driver beaten to death by Muslim youths he dared to reprimand.
Steyn puts his focus on Europe and considers it the foremost battlefront in the war of Islam against the West. With a sprinkling of humor here and there, Steyn points out that the Muslim immigrants to Europe vastly outbreed the Europeans. The Europeans, Steyn thinks, have become so self-centered with their cradle to grave "security" that they have simply lost interest in having children. Which leaves the burden of supporting the aging European population on the shoulders of the Muslim immigrants who basically have not assimilated into the European culture.
Thus, Steyn reasons, Europe and its culture are doomed. When Mohammed is fast becoming the most popular name of new born infant boys in Europe, the odds that all these little Mohammeds will want to support the aging Jaques and Jacquelines is nil.
Even with the occasional Steyn zinger, the message is grim.
It becomes grimmer as Steyn covers what, to the informed reader, should be the familiar ground of the imams preaching a message of hate and violence, the rapidly changing demographics of European cities, the spinelessness of European politicians. Imagine this: the director of England's prisons decreed that the British flag could no longer be flown at those prisons because it contains the Cross of St. George which Muslim prisoners might find offensive. European laws censor any criticism of Muslim proclivities while doing nothing to stop Muslims from attacking their host nations and cultures.
Steyn's wit is, as always, sharp. But it doesn't mask the grimness of his message. Islam has resumed the conquest of Europe it paused in 1623 - and Europe's intellectuals and politicians are not only doing nothing to stop the invasion, they are advocating national suicide.
Steyn doesn't think the ordinary people will long tolerate this and comes close to predicting the possibility of a bloodbath.
The United States, thinks Steyn, is on its way to being the sole bastion against the Islamic tide, "America Alone" as he puts it. A high birthrate in the so-called red states, along with a culture - again primarily in the red states that pushes assimilation - and other factors may make it possible for the US to resist the tide.
Steyn advocates that it is time for Americans to tell their government to stop listening to those who advocate national suicide and to start spreading the word that the American way of life is better. That representative government is a good idea. That individal freedom is beneficial. The problem, as Steyn recognizes, is that this kind of talk galvanizes left-wing politicians, so-called intellectuals and others who essentially advocate surrender to a foreign, repressive religious/political culture.
Steyn is funny, but the humor here is close to gallows humor. Hopefully those who, like Steyn, see the danger can change the ways of the United States so we take an active role in combating the dangers that increasingly confronts us. Europe, as Steyn so clearly sees, is most likely lost. |
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William Hensler (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
Mark Steyn's book, America Alone, is an expansion of a very detailed op-ed piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal back in January of 2006. Mr. Steyn's warning in that article was chilling: what is a greater threat to women of the future, global warming or Islam? Back in 1966 a woman in France was at the height of her freedom. Now it's 2006 and French women must walk through parts of Paris in Islamic dress else risk attack from Muslim men. The fact of the matter is the Muslim men are far more oppressive to French women than the Germans ever were in WWII.
I'm sort of depressed after reading this book. There are several like it, such as Bruce Brawer's While Europe Slept. All say about the same thing, a post Christian and sort-of-decadent Europe let massive waves of semi-ignorant Muslims into their nation knowing it will be the long term death of their nations. The worst thing is if a pro-native politician runs for office they can be killed. The present leaders of Europe are a bunch of PC wankers who don't mind screwing the taxpayers and will do anything to appease the Muslims.
I really don't know what traditional Europe can do after reading this book. The typical European voter's vote does not really count. The elites don't want the people running the various nations. The elites still have visions of Hitler while ignoring their own Chamberland view of threats. What are the traditinal citizens of Europe to do?
America is a much different nut to crack than Europe. There is still a bulwark of over 70% Christian in this nation. Also, they are a tollerant lot. No attacks have been made against mosques dispite the fact the FBI estimates that 5% of all mosques have been involved in terrorist related funding. In a sane society all Islamic groups would lose their tax exempt status for doing such things.
Mark's book is another wake up call to America and Europe. The trouble is only the choir (mostly conservatives and concerned liberals) hears Mark's warning and the Muslim's and their allies don't want you to hear Mark's warnings and very funny (and somewhat depressing) stories. |
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William Ditmire (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
A somewhat thought-provoking quick read. The conservative columnist correctly repeats the fact that the population of the European countries is declining even as the Muslim component of their populations is increasing. Muslim fecundity both in Europe and in the traditional Muslim world far outstrips that of traditional Europeans. Only the United States among the most favored nations is holding its own, partly due to our new friends from the south.
Hardly worthy of a "Faux News Alert," this demographic data has been available to all but the dismally unread for at least a decade. Few also breathe who don't know that the Muslim persuasion will do more that swap out churches for mosques when it gains control of each of the chocolate-making countries in their turn.
Steyn's conclusions are that to avoid losing our civilization we must "reform Islam" (as though we will be invited in for that purpose by the imams), "support women's rights... support economic and political liberty... deny international legitimacy to really bad Muslim regimes... transform the energy industry (the all-powerful oil companies will surely help us reduce our dependency on... OIL)... and strike militarily (At their culture? At their nurseries?) when the opportunity presents itself. He implicitly supports the neocon-powered "Bush Doctrine" of transforming the middle east through the militarily-imposed spread of Jeffersonian democracy.
Robert Malthus, himself a political demographer, predicted in the early 19th century that mankind would be starving by 1870, due to the population outrunning its ability to feed itself. The fallacy in his "Malthusian Doctrine" was reaching his conclusion by extrapolating from current data, that is, a static model. Down that same faulty path follows Steyn. Whether Muslims expand their range more or less quickly, how they view Western culture (interesting alternative or target to be destroyed) in ten, thirty or fifty years may depend on our ability to begin dismantling the damage done to our status and image by Bush's policies, which have dented our limo to an extent the jihadis couldn't have inflicted on us in their wildest psychotic dreams. It's up to us to sell half the world on our vision of the future rather than Osama's.
In the mean time, be fruitful and multiply- the balance of power may depend on it!
(A negative review. MSL remarks.) |
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G. Cunin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
You don't have to agree with Mark Steyn to enjoy this book. This was the most entertaining political book I've ever read. The writing is witty, inciteful, and addictive, and just for entertainment value, this book is well worth it. But that's not all! You get some brilliant observations on the state of our world today. And you have to laugh at the lame reviews who simply label him a racist. Clearly they never read the book and have no interest in its actual contents. But this politically correct, multiculturalist dogma which has reduced political debate in the west to name calling and labels will be the death of us. Like Mark Steyn himself says, radical Islam really doesn't threaten conservatives. Just get a few more wives, grow a beard, and life goes on. It's the pot-smoking bi-sexuals in Holland who should really wake up.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-16 00:00>
If there is a weakness in America Alone it is a disconnect between the deadly seriousness of the subject matter and the sometimes lighthearted and jovial tone taken by author Mark Steyn. And the subject is frightening. Steyn himself draws a comparison in the prologue between his vision of things to come and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Both tell us: If current trends continue, we will not recognize the world we live in just a few decades hence. But Steyn is not angling for a massive expansion of government influence and authority, Steyn is not asking for tax increases, Steyn is not running for office, and most importantly, Steyn's data is verifiable and real. Conservatives will find Steyn's prose sparkling and vibrant while still authoritative; a dry presentation of data would have been tiresome to read. But the sometimes too witty prose makes Steyn's work troublesome to quote outside of the conservative fold and that limits the value and impact of his excellent work.
Steyn may be preaching to the choir but the choir needs practice. The Republican party took a drubbing in the 2006 mid-terms because they abandoned core conservative principles. Before conservatives open their checkbooks for the next round of Republican hopefuls for 2008, they should insist that these candidates demonstrate, among other things, a command of the information presented in America Alone. Steyn shows that the civilized world is contracting due to low birth rates and the uncivilized world is procreating with relative abandon. Ideologically, the rule of law and respect for rights (and responsibilities) is passing out of vogue in favor of multiculturalism, victims' rights and an end to the notion of personal responsibility. Islam is poised to fill the void.
Hard, verifiable data show that Europe is already past the tipping point and will become Eurabia in the next few decades. Russia's death throes are likely to destabilize the world and China's gender skewed and plunging population will cripple their efforts to join the modern world. Islam is a militant and violent political ideology with no moderating tendencies and it is gaining influence around the world at an alarming rate. America alone will stand against a nuclear armed caliphate and Mutual Assured Destruction is just fine with them. The measures we might take to change this horrific scenario require a will and resolve we may find we no longer have.
Courageous liberals and serious students should consider a compare-and-contrast exercise between America Alone and An Inconvenient Truth.
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1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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