Update 3/10/08 - Peter Robinson offers a video interview with Dr. Thornton. The Corner previews saying:
The degeneration of Europe is a familiar subject to anyone who has been reading Mark Steyn, but Bruce comes at the matter from a different angle than does Mark, concentrating less the collapse of the European population than on the collapse of European belief. “If traditional Christianity is discarded,” Bruce asks in today’s opening segment, “then what will unify Europeans?” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
- NRO today published an interview with Bruce Thornton, author of Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow-Motion Suicide . Some excerpts:
Lopez: Is there a European view of free speech? How poisonous is it?
Thornton: Generally the European view of free speech is much more restricted than what we enjoy in the United States. Like politically correct American professors, many Europeans — certainly not all — are all for the freedom of speech that attacks the U.S. or Chritianity or Israel, but then they put out of bounds criticism of Islam or Muslims. Hypocritical double standards are always poisonous, for they undercut the authority of the principle in question.
If we make an exception for one group, then other groups will agitate for the same privilege. But more important, the European sensitivity to Muslim sensibilities bespeaks not principle but fear: Hence it is another sign of suicidal appeasement. . .
Lopez: Which countries can be most easily salvaged?
Thornton: Most recently the Danish have been the most aggressive in defending their principles and ideals against jihadist assault, and in attempting to tighten up on immigration. But Denmark or Switzerland aren’t the issue: France, England, and Germany are the big boys of Europe, and though they are doing a good job so far of keeping an eye on potential terrorists, not one of the three is really addressing the deep-seated problems that foster terrorism in the first place, the most important being an unwillingness to assert the superiority of Western Civilization and to demand that immigrants accept those ideals if they want to enjoy the freedom and prosperity of the West. . .
Lopez: How might Europe get on a 12-step program to recovery? Who might lead it from the edge?
Thornton: Alas, I don’t think there is any program that can restore a civilization’s self-confidence and willingness to die and kill for its values, once these have been eroded. Particularly when life seems, for the moment, so good for many Europeans, and their security is underwritten by their boorish American cousins. I think the question is not “who” but “what” will bring Europe back to its senses. A serious economic crisis, or more and more terrorist attacks, might wake enough people up. The problem is, what sort of reaction would ensue? A violent fascist revival is not out of the question. Something else that might help is for the United States to stop enabling Europe’s delusions by giving Europeans a free security ride. The European dolce vita is subsidized by America, for Europe simply doesn’t spend the money on defense necessary for the West to police the world and allow the global economy that makes Europe rich flourish in the first place. An American withdrawal from NATO might concentrate the E.U. mind wonderfully and induce Europe to shoulder its fair share of the security bill.