The end of the world as we know it

John Hawkins conducts a fascinating interview with Mark Steyn. I was particularly taken with this back and forth:

John Hawkins: In a recent column, you said: 'The 21st century will be an Anglosphere century, with America, India and Australia leading the way.' Why don't you see Europe, China, or Russia as likely 'leaders' in the 21st century? Mark Steyn: Russia is diseased and literally dying. Russian men already have a lower life expectancy than Bangladeshis. By 2050 that vast sprawling nation will have a smaller population than tiny Yemen. There’s no precedent for this in a relatively advanced nation not at war, and the only question is how peacefully Russia goes into its long dark night. That’s also a question for Europe, too - how smoothly it manages its transition to a majority Muslim society by the end of this century. On that, I'd bet on form – ie, violent conflagration, mass slaughter, bloody revolution, etc. Russia and Europe will be foreign policy management problems for the United States but not serious economic, cultural, or military rivals. As for China, the present day Communist boomtown is a fascinating anomaly, but in the end its political deformity will cause it serious problems.

I was also struck by this:

John Hawkins: This line is from one of your columns:

"Two years after ''the day America changed forever,'' the culture is in thrall to the same dopey self-delusion it held on Sept. 10, 2001: There are no enemies, just friends we haven't yet apologized to."

Today, in 2005 that seems truer than ever, well, at least on the left. Why do think the American left has become so incapable of dealing with foreign policy threats? Mark Steyn: There are two malign trends of the last four decades, and in the war on terror they’ve merged. For the far left, the issue is always America. So, if America's destabilizing some Marxist-Leninist socialist utopia the left takes the side of the Marxist-Leninist socialist utopia. Likewise, if America's at odds with misogynist racist homophobic theocrats, the left takes the side of the sodomite-beheaders and the freelance clitorectomy performers. That’s entirely consistent once you realize it’s simply a choice of United States vs [Your Name Here]. More worrying is the complete evaporation of the moderate credible foreign policy Scoop Jackson Democrats. I would attribute this to the descent into legalism of the soft left. You see this in John Kerry's view of terrorism as a matter for law enforcement and subpoenas - a strategy that's completely failed when cases have come to trial in Germany, Britain, Holland and elsewhere. And, when it comes to Guantanamo, too many Democrats have a John Edwards-like tendency to talk about terrorists as if they're one almighty class-action suit they can't wait to sign up. A buffoon like Dick Durbin – making a legalistic “terrorists’ rights” argument with deranged Hitler comparisons – is the perfect embodiment of both the soft and hard left.

The whole interview is very long and, since I'm a Mark Steyn groupie, I consider every word worth reading.