Post 2

This week i started my outside reading book for quarter two is a non-fiction book titled America Alone, by mark Steyn. The introduction and initial chapters of the book focus on setting up the scenario the events of which it appears Steyn intends to describe throughout the book. Demographics, says Steyn, represent a far greater danger to western ideals and beliefs than any country ever can. Steyn makes a convincing case for why, demographically, western nations are in crisis mode. To explain this he first has to explain demography, the study of the ever changing demographics of the global population. When you have one country having an average of 4 children per married couple, and another with 1 child, it is obvious that the country with the superior birth rate will inevitably be better able to advance their ideas. With this explanation taken care of we get to the real implications of the demographic crisis America faces. To put it simply, Every western nation other than America is in the process of breeding itself into extinction. France, Denmark, Belgium, and others, these previous pinnacles of western ideas are dropping below a 2 children born per pair of adults ratio. On the other hand you have the middle east, countries like iran, syria, and jordan have ratios as high as 4 per pair of adults, explosive on its own, but especially so when compared to European populations. The countries then, that will be able to shape the next generation of world culture in an increasingly globalized earth, are those of the middle east. And that is where i leave off this week.