We Should Live - Ben Bateman

(Updated 5-10-06.  Scroll down for more on Ayaan Hirsi Ali.)

Mark Steyn pulls no punches in his most recent article about Europe’s apparently irreversible decline:

To those on the American left who find Europe more “sophisticated”, you’re right: it’s sophisticated in the sense that a belle époque Parisian boulevardier is sophisticated – outwardly dapper and worldly, inwardly eaten away by syphilis and gonorrhea. It’s only a question of how many others the clapped-out bon vivant infects before his final collapse.

If you’re familiar with Steyn’s writing, then you know that this is no mere fit of pique. Steyn has put considerable time and energy into studying Europe’s future, and he knows what he’s talking about. You can dismiss his conclusions as overly pessimistic, but the basic facts are undisputable on population decline, unemployment rates, economic growth rates, and nearly unstoppable trends in the age and ethnic makeup of Europe’s population. Add to this the political atmosphere that opposes any type of change, and it’s difficult to disagree with Steyn’s pithy verdict:

Europe is dying, and it’s only a question of whether it goes peacefully or through convulsions of violence.

Steyn is also pessimistic on the future of Europe’s relationship with America. He doesn’t dislike the Europeans, nor does he wish them ill. But he recognizes, as do most conservatives familiar with the topic, that we can’t save Europe from the natural consequences of its own beliefs. Not only do the Europeans not yet understand that their deep love of government control is killing them, but they still want to lecture us Americans on our moral and political inferiority.

America dealing with Europe is like an adult dealing with an elderly parent who can no longer drive safely. Not only does the crotchity oldster refuse to give up his car keys, but he rewards your attempt to help with a scathing review of your own personal shortcomings: “No, I won’t let you save me from myself, and if you try I’ll (verbally) kick you in the teeth again.”

You can’t reason with Europe on this any more than you can reason with an aging parent. You can point out, as Steyn does, that Europe’s statism is a mystical belief mostly rooted in blind faith. Everyone has a religion, or a substitute for a religion. These religions are usually beyond the scope of rational discussion and become more difficult to change with the passage of time. Europe’s statist religion goes back at least as far as the French Revolution. As the religion ossifies, the believer warps reality to his belief system, rather than adapting his belief system to reality.

Steyn gives the example of Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and supporter of the EU Constitution that Europe’s voters decisively rejected a year ago:

As [Juncker] put it in his now famous dismissal of the will of the people: “If it’s a Yes, we will say ‘on we go’, and if it’s a No we will say ‘we continue’.”

These people still rule Europe, and their resolve to stay the course is as firm as any religious fanatic’s. The media are still under firm government control, and the latest round of French riots in response to a very modest nudge in the right direction proved that a change of course is simply impossible right now from the professional politician’s perspective.

It’s an interesting mental exercise to imagine what Europe’s fall will look like. I predict a slow, gentle slide into dhimmitude. We get little hints of that every month:

• When Sweden announced this month that it would not allow sharia to apply to its Muslim population, the story was considered worth reporting.
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• Today there is a story about Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has sharply criticized Islam, and who has gone into hiding for her own safety after Theo Van Gogh was ritually murdered in broad daylight. Her neighbors are complaining. You might think that Ms. Ali would be something of a heroine in her neighborhood for standing up to the Islamic menace. And if you thought that, you would be naive. Her neighbors sued to have her evicted because her presence endangers them. When the Muslim thugs come to kill Ms. Ali for her independence of thought, the neighbors would prefer not to suffer any collateral damage. An appeals court ruled in favor of the neighbors, and ordered Ms. Ali to leave. Ms. Ali can have her crazy ideas about freedom of speech and conscience, but her neighbors would prefer peace, which means doing what the thugs want. In a few years, I’m sure that the surviving Dutch will be telling us that sharia isn’t so bad, once you get used to it.
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• And let’s not even start about the cartoons.

We can’t save Europe. We can’t even make it stop criticizing us long enough to hear our warnings and think about changing course. Like a great ship at sea, Europe is headed straight into an iceberg, and any chance to avoid it slipped away years ago. The forces at work—especially the demographic forces—carry too much momentum for anyone to reverse at this point.

And given that inevitability, maybe it’s for the best that Europe continues to bathe in its arrogance for a few more years. Since they’re already doomed, they might as well enjoy themselves right up until the ship sinks. They should ignore the warning signs: a bombing here, a throat slit there, the occasional riots and burning cars. Again, it’s like an aging parent, but this time terminally ill: If petulantly announcing its moral superiority is so much fun, then maybe Europe should enjoy what few pleasures remain to it. Let the old coot have its fun. Today, Europe’s message to America is arrogance and condescension. In 20 or 30 years it may be “Allahu Akbar.” And then we’ll miss the old days.

Update: (5/10/06) Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke at Harvard yesterday to a polite but hostile audience. The MSM ignored it, but you can read about it here, here, and here. Christopher Hitchens tells an abbreviated version of her story here.

In brief, Ms. Ali was born in Somalia to a Muslim family, and moved to Europe hoping to escape forced marriage and the other indignities to which Muslims expect women to submit. But sharia had proceeded her. Working as a social worker in Holland, she saw that Muslim girls and women were still subject to beatings, honor killings, mutilation, and forced marriages. The European governments ignored the problem and left the Muslim neighborhoods alone.

She entered politics to right this wrong, and collaborated with Theo van Gogh to produce the film Submission, which is a short documentary dramatizing the plight of Muslim women, with special focus on how the Koran validates and even encourages violence towards women. Van Gogh was brutally and dramatically murdered in public, in broad daylight. The murderer used a long knife to attach to the corpse a note promising that Ms. Ali would be next.

Since then she has lived in hiding and under constant armed guard, but has not backed down. Her book, The Caged Virgin, was published last month. (Excerpt here.) The book is about her own physical and mental escape from Islam, her political efforts to warn Europe about the Islamic threat, and the complete lack of interest that many secular liberals have in helping these women who are held in near-slavery on European soil.