Why Steyn is a traitor to the West and makes his “conservative” readers traitors to the West, cont.
The below entry was drafted January 2007 but never posted. I just came upon it in my files. It is relevant to the recent attacks on me at What’s Wrong with the World, where I have been criticized for, among other things, calling Mark Steyn a traitor to the West. I have previously explained to critics why I take that position. See, in particular, this.The below is also relevant to our recent discussions about unserious conservatives.
(January 21, 2007). The other day, I pointed to Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu’s glowing review at FrontPage Magazine of Mark Steyn’s America Alone. Cucullu had praised the book for making the impending death of Europe amusing. In the article’s opening sentence, Cucullu wrote:
In America Alone, Mark Steyn presents us with a doomsday scenario backed by impeccable science and research, and he does it in such a clever manner that we are actually amused as we read of the impending demise of Europe-as-we-knew-it, Japan, and Canada.
Clark Coleman posted a comment to the article at FP, which he sent to me [for some reason, all the comments on the linked FP article have been removed]:
Subject: Some of us don’t find it amusing
Comment: The author praises Mark Steyn for making the impending demise of Europe, Canada, and Japan “amusing.” Those who make the demise of Western Civilization amusing are traitors to the West. What would be amusing about having the USA be the last outpost of Western Civilization?
“Conservatism” in America today is all about entertainment, celebrity, making a name for yourself as a columnist or talk radio host, etc. Fiddling while Rome burns. Very amusing.
Publicly calling for an end to Muslim immigration into the West is not Politically Correct. Pseudo-conservative cowards such as Mark Steyn don’t have the nerve to actually address the problem. So, they make a living entertaining us with humorous writings about the coming disaster.
I wrote back to Mr. Coleman:
Excellent.
Especially:
“Conservatism” in America today is all about entertainment, celebrity, making a name for yourself as a columnist or talk radio host, etc. Fiddling while Rome burns. Very amusing.
I would add that it’s about entertainment on one hand, and a quasi-fascist sensibility on the other. For example, the prominent “mainstream conservative” to whom I wrote the other day on the “Islamofascism” issue had said to me:
Using “Islam” serves no useful and distinguishing purpose. “Islamofascism” does by connecting Islam and fascism in people’s minds, and uses the left’s term of ultimate political derision to do it. Plus it’s accurate: our enemies are Moslem fascists—and not all Moslems are either our enemies nor are fascists. Besides, it will do you no good to rail against it as the term is rapidly gaining currency. [LA Note 6-22-08: the mainstream conservative quoted here is most likely David Horowitz.]
Can you imagine a political writer saying such a thing in earlier decades: “Shut up, we’re winning, you’ve lost.” Yet that’s the tone of many conservatives today.
Then add onto that the bizarre twist that these quasi-fascist conservatives, rallied around their Beloved Leader Bush, are actually followers of a wimpy liberal program of believing our enemies are just like us and can be “reformed”!! So we get the worst of both worlds—liberal substance and fascist manners.
You write:
“So, they make a living entertaining us with humorous writings about the coming disaster.”
Yes. Its like this:
(1) The disaster is happening. (2) Doing anything about it is inconceivable, completely outside our ken, not even a question that would remotely arise in our minds. (3) Life goes on. So, (4) since the disaster is happening, and since we don’t want to do anything about it, and since life goes on, we might as well joke about it, which is both fun and makes one a good living.
Conclusion: Steyn’s approach is perfectly rational and sensible, and people are correct to praise him. That is, they are correct to praise him if their desire is to live untroubled lives within the present liberal order and never to challenge it.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 22, 2009 11:16 AM | Send