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America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It (Audio CD)
by Mark Steyn, Brian Emerson (Narrator)
| Category:
American politics, World politics, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 308.00
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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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Author: Mark Steyn, Brian Emerson (Narrator)
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc.
Pub. in: January, 2007
ISBN: 0786157933
Pages: 200
Measurements:
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BB00053
Other information: Unabridged edition; ISBN-13: 978-0786157938
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- Awards & Credential -
A bestselling non-fiction book from Mark Steyn, probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world. The book ranks #56 in books on Amazon.com as of January 16, 2007. |
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- MSL Picks -
This book is a must-read not only for Americans. I would urge anyone living on the American and Australian continents, or within Western spheres of influence, to absorb its factual and witty exposure of how Islamic customs impact Western civilization.
Our passivity in the presence of a global Islamofascist appeal for full acceptance of the Koran, as revealed by Allah to Mohammed, will ensure that all human life will be in submission, i.e. Islam. It means that all of us will obey every aspect of Mohammed's way of life, to begin with prostrating ourselves five times daily with orientation to Mecca. Incidentally, for the extremists the text of the Koran is to be taken literally (elaborated in the Sura and the collections of prescriptions by his followers), because Mohammed declared himself the representation of Allah. Simply put, whatever Mohammed did is perfect, including polygamy, taking as his wife any one over the age of nine he desired (including married women) and divorcing any wife by three times saying "I divorce (you)."
With simple, informative, historical examples Mark Steyn expands the warnings of many others regarding the encroachment of Muslim mores on the laws of Western countries. Recently we mourned the death of Oriana Fallaci, famous female journalist, who wrote passionately about islam-induced exceptions to the law of her land (see her 2004 book: The Force of Reason). She had to live in New York City, when forced to leave Italy, her home country, because she was accused of "inflammatory" reporting.
Fact is that some respected persons in the West must now move to another country because of Islamic death threats, or hide where they are living, such as the Muslim writer Salman Rushdie. That is not how any Muslim in Western countries is treated, even if he is known to condemn openly our lifestyles. Moreover, the great majority of Westerners, and unfortunately too many of our thoughtleaders and politicians, do not take seriously the threats of high-placed Muslims to "Wipe out Israel," or to create a "(world) map without ("Satan") America." Additionally, we are not thinking of the fact that in Europe more Muslim than Western children are born per woman. The distressing message of Mark Steyn is the "birth of Eurabia."
America Alone strengthens my will and resolve to combat the ethics of the Koran with the morality of our Judeo-Christian civilization. The Koran has no morality and adheres to ethics of a millennium ago. My arguments will focus on targets such as: Freedom of expression, condemnation of inhumane punishments (e.g. beheading, stoning, amputation), defending the (non-existent) rights of women and non-muslims, etc. These targets are in order of likelihood of understanding by "mainstream" muslims, so that our morest may be increasingly the norm. Full acceptance may take generations, and our present fight may be bloody for decades. However, keep in mind that Western progress from forced organization of mostly oppressed majorities to recognition of inalienable individual rights took even more time. Also, we can not deny that our "civil wars" were more bloody than ever imagined. You and I may have experienced their furor before the universality of humankind became recognized!
Not entirely true!!!
The Western concept of human universality is not yet accepted by Islamofascists and the remnants of second and third world communists....
Thus it's worth reading Mark Steyn.
(From quoting Aristide Esser, USA)
Target readers:
General readers. But highly recommended as a must-read for those that want to make and understand policy and to see the future marching toward us.
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Mark Steyn's writing on war, politics, the arts, and culture can be read around the world from the Atlantic Monthly to The Australian. In the United States his column appears in the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Sun, the Washington Times, the Orange County Register, and other newspapers. He is also National Review's "Happy Warrior," a columnist for the New Criterion, and resident obituarist for the Atlantic Monthly. In Canada, he is senior columnist for the country's newest political magazine, the Western Standard, and literary correspondent for the country's biggest-selling general interest magazine, Maclean's. In addition, he appears in many other publications, from the Jerusalem Post to Hawke's Bay Today in New Zealand. Born in Toronto, he lives in New Hampshire.
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From Publisher
It’s the end of the world as we know it...
Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are.
And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength" - while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn’t violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.
If you think this can’t happen, you haven’t been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn - the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world - shows to devastating effect in this, his first and eagerly awaited new book on American and global politics.
The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West - wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion - is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization.
Europe, laments Steyn, is almost certainly a goner. The future, if the West has one, belongs to America alone - with maybe its cousins in brave Australia. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world’s last best hope.
Steyn argues that, contra the liberal cultural relativists, America should proclaim the obvious: we do have a better government, religion, and culture than our enemies, and we should spread America’s influence around the world - for our own sake as well as theirs.
Mark Steyn’s America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny - but it will also change the way you look at the world. It is sure to be the most talked-about book of the year.
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| View all 9 comments |
R. Hayden (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 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
<2007-01-25 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. |
Stevan Horning (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 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). |
Colin Fergus (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 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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