Decline of the West?
Mark Steyn gave a speech to an Australian audience the other day in which he presented at length his thesis about the decline of the West. Put very briefly, he has four main points:- Western society no longer believes in itself - "As for many teachers, they regard the accumulated inheritance of western civilization as an unending parade of racism, sexism, imperialism and other malign -isms, leavened only by routine genocides. Even if this were true – which it’s not – it’s not a good sustaining narrative for any nation unless it’s planning on going out of business."
- The West, and in particular Europe and Japan, is in a strong demographic decline
- Socialism will eventually fail in a state with a large elderly and dependent population
- Radical Islam is an opportunistic threat, capitalizing on the weakness of Western society - "radical Islam is only the top-eighth of that iceberg – it’s an opportunist enemy taking advantage of a demographically declining and spiritually decayed west. The real issue is the seven-eighths below the surface – the larger forces at play in the developed world that have left Europe too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabia and call into question the future of much of the rest of the world."
It's certainly an interesting and provocative theory. I am sympathetic to his theories, particularly with respect to the spiritual malaise of Europe. However, I have read some thought-provoking rebuttals of this argument as well - but I am having trouble finding them. As I have been unable to post anything for the last several weeks, I am just going to go ahead and throw this one out there. Feel free to disagree!!
posted by JM @ 5:33 AM
<< Home