If you've got an extra 20 minutes or so, and feel like pondering something rather profound, read this essay. In a nutshell columnist Mark Steyn says that Western civilization is facing its own death as births in Western countries slow while those in the developing world gallop ahead. A longer sort-of summary can be found here. You really, however, should read it for yourself.
While Steyn raises a valid concern I have to say that I am not as pessimistic as him. Remember, this is about culture, not race, so birth rates of certain nationalities is only one factor. The death of the West can be avoided in my opinion as long as its cultural values are spread throughout the world. Basically, we must absorb our enemies. And this is one reason why Iraq, and the broader Bush Administration emphasis on the spread of freedom and democracy-- while widely snickered at -- is so crucial. In some respects it really is a race against time.
As he notes:
This is also why I believe that our future relations with Asia are so critical. The transformation of Japan into a Western country that shares values of tolerance has to be regarded as a major triumph. If we could just replicate that with over 1 billion Indians, or a billion Chinese, that would go a long way towards solving this potential looming crisis.
Update: A less gloomy take here.
While Steyn raises a valid concern I have to say that I am not as pessimistic as him. Remember, this is about culture, not race, so birth rates of certain nationalities is only one factor. The death of the West can be avoided in my opinion as long as its cultural values are spread throughout the world. Basically, we must absorb our enemies. And this is one reason why Iraq, and the broader Bush Administration emphasis on the spread of freedom and democracy-- while widely snickered at -- is so crucial. In some respects it really is a race against time.
As he notes:
In a globalized economy, the environmentalists want us to worry about First World capitalism imposing its ways on bucolic, pastoral, primitive Third World backwaters. Yet, insofar as "globalization" is a threat, the real danger is precisely the opposite--that the peculiarities of the backwaters can leap instantly to the First World. Pigs are valued assets and sleep in the living room in rural China--and next thing you know an unknown respiratory disease is killing people in Toronto, just because someone got on a plane. That's the way to look at Islamism: We fret about McDonald's and Disney, but the big globalization success story is the way the Saudis have taken what was 80 years ago a severe but obscure and unimportant strain of Islam practiced by Bedouins of no fixed abode and successfully exported it to the heart of Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Manchester, Buffalo...Indeed.
This is also why I believe that our future relations with Asia are so critical. The transformation of Japan into a Western country that shares values of tolerance has to be regarded as a major triumph. If we could just replicate that with over 1 billion Indians, or a billion Chinese, that would go a long way towards solving this potential looming crisis.
Update: A less gloomy take here.
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