After America, by Mark Steyn

In his first book, America Alone, columnist Mark Steyn predicted the collapse of the Western world and said that only America stands as a bulwark against the onrushing horde. In his follow-up, 2011’s After America, Steyn argues that America’s decline has accelerated and we are nearly at the collapse of the United States as a hyperpower. Armed with statistics and a preponderance of anecdotal evidence, the picture he paints is grim and greatly depressing

In a very effective framing device, Steyn frequently invokes H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine. Imagine someone from 1890 traveling ahead 60 years to 1950. How astonishing our technological achievements must seem! We have refrigerators, ovens, radios, televisions, indoor heating and cooling without the need of fire, cars, and airplanes. If he jumps ahead another 60 years to 2010, would he be astonished or disappointed? Our refrigerators are sleeker, but about the same. Televisions are smaller and in color, and our music is more portable. Cars use less fuel, but don’t go any faster. Where are the giant leaps in technology? One observation that struck me is that it now takes longer to fly from New York to London today (2012) than it did in 1950. Our planes don’t travel any slower, we just need to get to the airport two hours before our flights for our TSA pat downs.

If we haven’t had much in the way of technological breakthroughs, maybe we’ve had societal breakthroughs instead. Yes, there is greater equality for minorities and women since 1950. We treat those with mental illness much more humanely and with more understanding. But there has also been an infantilization of society, the delaying of adulthood, and a stronger sense of entitlement. What do we know of the goals of Occupy Wall Street other than getting college loan forgiveness? One example Steyn uses is the free condom program in Washington, D.C., schools. High school and college students registered complaints that the condoms being passed out were inferior in quality and were too small. Take this excerpt from a Washington Post story:

 “If people get what they don’t want, they are just going to trash them,” said T. Squalls, 30, who attends the University of the District of Columbia. “So why not spend a few extra dollars and get what people want?”

Makes sense. But think about it. Mr. Squalls is thirty years old and is complaining about free condoms given out by the school system. In any previous generation, a thirty year old would be employed, married, most likely has a child and mortgage, and would be expected to purchase his own condoms. Now, he is a perpetual student who expects free stuff from the government and gets quoted by a newspaper as a representative example of someone with a legitimate grievance.

Steyn has other damning examples. Pages and pages of them. Here’s a giant block quote detailing recent instances in Britain and the US where citizens died or were greatly harmed by the inaction of our public servants:

In May 2010, a 37-year-old woman was drowning in the River Clyde while police officers called to the scene stood on the bank and watched.

“As a matter of procedure it’s not the responsibility of the police to go in the water,” explained a spokesperson, sniffily, “it’s the Fire and Rescue Service.” And, as they weren’t there yet, tough. The woman would have died had not three Glasgow University students jumped in to save her. Needless to say, the students were in complete breach of “matters of procedure.”

In February 2010, a 5-year-old girl was trapped in a car submerged in the icy River Avon for two hours while West Mercia Police stood around on the bank watching. They were “prevented” from diving in to rescue her by “safety regulations.” In 2007, two police officers watched as a 10-year-old boy, Jordon Lyon, drowned in a swimming pool in Wigan. The same year, fireman Tam Brown dived into the River Tay to rescue a drowning girl and got her back to shore, only to find he was now subject to a disciplinary investigation by Tayside Fire Service.

In 2008, Alison Hume fell sixty feet down an abandoned mine shaft. An 18-strong rescue crew arrived, but the senior officer said that a recent memo had banned the use of rope equipment for rescuing members of the public. It could only be used to rescue fellow firefighters. So Alison Hume died, in compliance with the memo.

Who is to blame? Steyn doesn’t explicitly point fingers, but you can put the dots together by looking at the anecdotes.  There is Steyn's stock in trade "demographic destiny". There is the American Eloi, the name borrowed from Wells, who accept intrusions on their liberties without squawking and go about drugging themselves with the opiates of pop culture and feel good-ism.  The prolifigate spenders of both political parties.  Steyn aptly wields Margaret Thatcher's maxim that "the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money."

There’s also every conservative’s favorite boogeyman: Big Government. There is only a limited amount of public space and the bigger government gets the more it crowds out. The governments in Europe are a lot more intrusive than here and we can see the effects. Religion, with the exception of Islam, is dying out. Charitable giving is almost unheard of (compared to the US). There’s even no room for the arts. This is a continent that has given us Da Vinci, Bach, and Shakespeare. Who is the last great artist to come out of Europe?

What can we do to fix it? This is something Steyn doesn’t spend too much time on, which is one fault I have with the book. He spends his (short) epilogue talking about things we can do, but they're mostly bullet points.  Some examples are De-Centralize, De-Regulate, De-Monopolize, De-Complicate, and Do.  Fairly standard stuff from conservative authors, but kind of hard for your Average Joe American to know where to start.

With all the doom-and-gloom, Afer America could be a very depressing read and in some ways it is. But, as anyone familiar with Steyn’s columns would know, the subject matter his handled with great wit and some nice wordplay. Unless you have had your funny bone surgically removed, you should get a few chuckles along the way.

It’s an eye-opening read, and unless you welcome a complete societal collapse, we could use a few more eyes opened.