As a classical homeschooler and a board member of a classical Christian school, I'm a firm believer in a liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes passing on the heritage of Western civilization. But believe me, the irony hasn't escaped me:
In the fourteenth century, the Black Death wiped out a third of the Continent's population; in the twenty-first, a larger proportion will disappear -- in effect, by choice. We are living through a rare moment: the self-extinction of the civilization which, for good or ill, shaped the age we live in. One can cite examples of remote backward tribes who expire upon contact with the modern world, but for the modern world to expire in favor of the backward tribes is a turn of events future anthropologists will ponder, as we do the fall of Rome.
That nugget is from Mark Steyn's new book,
America Alone, which (encouragingly) sits at #15 on the Amazon.com sales list. The book's jacket calls Steyn "the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world." He's certainly one of the wittiest. Even this afternoon, my colleague down the hall was working the phones trying to get Steyn here for a lecture and book-signing. More Steyn:
A big chunk of Western Civilization, consciously or otherwise, has given the impression that it's dying to surrender to somebody, anybody. Reasonably enough, the jihadists figure: hey, why not us?
The longer the long war gets, the harder it will be, because it's a race against time, against lengthening demographic, economic, and geopolitical odds. By "demographic," I mean the Muslim world's high birth rate, which by mid-century will give tiny Yemen a higher population than vast empty Russia. By "economic," I mean the perfect storm the Europeans will face within this decade, because their lavish welfare states are unsustainable with their post-Christian birth rates. By "geopolitical," I mean that if you think the United Nations and other international organizations are antipathetic to America now, wait a few years and see what kind of support you get from a semi-Islamified Europe.
Action items for my Christian friends: Read Mark Steyn. Then make lots of babies, and make sure they receive a classical Christian education.
As a classical homeschooler and a board member of a classical Christian school, I'm a firm believer in a liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes passing on the heritage of Western civilization. But believe me, the irony hasn't escaped me: