Welcome to Part Seven in our new audio adaptation of a favourite book among SteynOnline readers: America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.
Thank you for all your kind comments about my first ever self-narration of this prescient tome. Steve, a Manhattan member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
Things that make you go hmmm... When I heard Mark, in this latest chilling portion of America Alone, say that Madrid—in response to the 3/11/04 Islamist attacks—was no New York, I thought immediately of New York's impending mayoral election.
There will have been 8,820 days between the 9/11 attack and Election Day, November 4, 2025. If New Yorkers install a Muslim Communist as mayor, will 11/4/25 become our 3/11?
Correction, Steve: A Muslim Communist born in Uganda who only took US citizenship when he decided to run for elective office - for which it is (at the moment) still required.
But, as I have often said, what's happening across the west is a valse macabre between the rabid incomers and a decadent and depraved native class. So, in this weekend's episode of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, we examine the determination of at least half your neighbours - in North America as in Europe - to carry on living beyond their means, even if it destroys their countries and their children's future. Here's how I put it in 2006:
As Gerald Ford likes to say when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have."
And that's true. But there's an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back.
If you want the latest example of that from twenty sodding years later, consider the latest precarious French government:
Sébastien Lecornu's government has survived a no-confidence vote – but only because Emmanuel Macron shelved the pension reform that once defined his presidency. Today's motion of censure fell short of the 289 votes needed to bring down the government, sparing Macron for now but leaving his authority weakened. What began as a crusade for fiscal responsibility has ended in capitulation...
The suspension of the pension reform, Macron's defining achievement, bought him the Socialists' abstention but cost him his credibility. The reform, passed last year amid mass protests, raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron called it a 'moral duty'. Now, under pressure, he's shelved the changes he claimed were essential to saving France from fiscal collapse. It's the ultimate betrayal of his own presidency.
Like I said a sod-bollocking generation ago, a government big enough to give you everything you want isn't big enough to get you to give any of it back - not even two lousy years on full salary. "Saving France from fiscal collapse"? Ce n'est pas mon problème, say Jacques and Manon. And, if you think they're not exactly cooperative, wait a few years until you're trying to sell later retirement to Mohammed and Aisha - in order to pay for Jacques and Manon's three decades of boules and apéros at the old folks' home.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seven of America Alone simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you prefer more fictional fancies of a weekend, we have thrillers, comedy classics, tales of horror and historical romance and much more, all over at our Tales for Our Time home page. If you've a friend who might be partial to our six-dozen pertinent adventures, we have a special Gift Membership that, aside from audio capers, also includes video poetry, live music and more. And I'll be doing a live-performance Tale for Our Time at sea on the next Mark Steyn Cruise - sailing aboard the Queen Mary 2.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget that special Gift Membership. As soon as you join, you'll get access not only to America Alone but to over seventy audio adventures in Tales for Our Time. Please join me next weekend for Part Eight of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.