Since election day, I’ve been trying to understand fear and hatred that so many Americans hold against themselves. Shelby Steele describes the relationship of White Guilt, and our willingness to exploit it against ourselves. David Horowitz describes George Soros’ practice of creating and exploiting social vacuums for personal gain, control of a global welfare state, and our willingness to elect politicians whose preoccupation with Soros and union money turns today’s public service into tomorrow’s false promise.

As troubling as these observations are, they are small stepping stones for a much larger threat to America, and Humanity.

As distracted as we are by OJ, Oprah, and dancing stars, I cannot urge a more important read for the beginning of the 21st century than Mark Steyn’s book, America Alone. In fact, if you’re too busy to read all 214 pages, stop by your favorite book store/coffee house for a vente latte and read the Prologue. Unless you’re high, culturally dead, suicidal; or like most Americans, too self-absorbed or moderate to remember your instinct of self-preservation, Steyn presents a humorous and self-evident analysis of the world’s present transition from enlightenment into enforced darkness.

Much of what we loosely call the Western World will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many, if not most European countries.

Steyn’s comparison-contrast of 20th century Chicken Littles like Paul Ehrlich, Club of Rome, Lowell Ponte, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore against the measurably obvious threat of Islam and the Western world’s deliberate ignorance of it, is irresistible.

Most striking is that the most obvious targets of Islam – leftists, gays, bra-burning-baby-aborting feminists, actors, and artists who are threatened the most, seem to think that the country that guarantees their God-given and inalienable freedoms of expression are somehow more of a threat to them than the billion Muslims who value death more than life and freedom.

Steyn writes:

When the mullahs take over, I’ll grow my beard a little fuller, get a couple extra wives, and keep my head down. It’s the feminists and gays who’ll have a tougher time. If, say, three of five judges on the Massachusetts Supreme Court are Muslim, what are the chances of them approving “gay marriage”?

Europe is the cloud of dying canaries in the proverbial cave:

The children and grandchildren of those Fascists and Republicans who waged a bitter civil war for the future of Spain now shrug when a bunch of foreigners blow up their capital. Too sedated even to sue for terms, they capitulate instantly.

America Alone is not a story of pseudo-problems like global warming or wars on poverty or drugs. Steyn’s is an undeniable analysis of the risks that threaten Western civilization as we know it. For the past 80 years, we have witnessed the beginning of the greatest revolutionary struggle in the history of mankind, and Steyn shows us to the best seats to witness it. It is up to all free people - liberals, conservatives, Republicans, and Democrats alike, to decide whether we will watch as spectators, or take part in its outcome.

Unless we are willing to fight what now approaches, our progeny will live in a world where freedom, if mentioned at all by tomorrow’s Muslim historians, was nothing more than a quaint experiment created by the brilliant parents of fat, lazy, and mostly undeserving children.

1. Dear Sirs ,

   Couldn`t agree more - you are so damned right - Europe is a place of idiot`s , whim`s and hippocrat`s — what can we do ? Fire our press , politician`s

   and all the other good doer`s ? Don`t you need some more migrants for reeducation?

   Take them , please !!!
   Regards B.

   Comment by Bernd Guhl — November 18, 2006 @ 4:15 pm

2. Soo, since when do we put apostrophe’s for plural noun’s?
   Overall I think the politicians in Europe behave in a more mature manner than they do here. Ever been to Europe? It’s much nicer there; theres no megacorporations that jam their porducts down your throat, no bloodthirsty press, and no stupid wannabe conservatives like yourself.

   Comment by Rafael — November 20, 2006 @ 5:59 pm

3. Hi Rafe - You remind me of an observation Steyn makes on page 25 about Europeans and lefties:

   “In a childish self-absorbed society where adults have been stripped of all responsibility, you never need stop playing with toys. We are the children we never had.”

   You can pick up “America Alone” or you can find your own Snuggling Ifbot.

   Comment by reenforce — November 20, 2006 @ 6:44 pm

4. This post has been nominated for inclusion in The Sacramento Bee’s Sunday Blog Watch feature.

   As part of broader project to bring the blogosphere to sacbee.com, the blog roundup in The Sacramento Bee Sunday Forum section has been commandered and turned into a digest of regional opinion. (See last week’s batch here.)

   I currently browse more than 200 regional blog feeds, setting aside the individual posts that have enough shelf life to be published on Sunday in The Bee. Recently I made it possible for people to “vote” on the blog posts being considering.

   This post is one of 10 blog posts currently in contention for inclusion next Sunday. Voting is limited to those who register at ipsosacto.com to prevent people from gaming the voting. If you just want to see how it works, you can use my guest account — user guest, password guest.

   To vote on this post and the others, go to http://www.ipsosacto.com/bw

   The accumulated blog feeds sorted by topic is at
   http://www.ipsosacto.com/sharing

   Enjoy

   Comment by John Hughes — November 21, 2006 @ 10:38 am