Last year I reviewed a couple of books by Melanie Phillips. She shares many similarities with Mark Steyn, but there are also significant differences. Both are journalists and authors, Phillips with the Daily Telegraph and Steyn with the National Review. Both have written books on the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism, Phillips in Londistan and Steyn in America Alone. Both have written books warning about the decay of Western culture and values, Phillips in The World Turned Upside Down and Steyn in the work under review, After America – Get Ready for Armageddon.

But there are significant differences: Phillips is female, Steyn is male. Phillips is English, Steyn is American. Phillips writes with English reserve and erudition, Steyn writes with American brashness and boastfulness. But both deserve to be read and have warnings that need to be heeded.

They both note how their cultures’ worship of the new idol of “diversity” is sapping their cultures of their strength and reason. To be called Islamaphobic or homophobic is to have one’s writings excluded from any serious consideration and the author labeled as stupid or dangerous.

There is a wholesale rejection of the culture that made these nations great, but it is not being replaced by anything of worth. Religious, gender and educational values have been tossed out the door, replaced by multiculturalism and the acceptance of everything in the name of diversity.

Into this vacuum is stepping Islamic fundamentalism and it is attracting many because at least it stands for something.

Surprisingly, many of the prophets of diversity are most at threat from Islamic fundamentalism but just cannot bring themselves to accept this.

Their writings could be said to be prophetic, as illustrated in this review of Steyn’s work by Mark Levin: “Mark Steyn is a modern day Jeremiah with a quiverful of devastating one-liners, nailing what liberals have done to our country. He presents an alarming – and frighteningly convincing – prophecy of where we’re headed. The choice is stark – we either listen to Steyn and act on his recommendations or face an economic and cultural Armageddon.”

Unlike Phillips, Steyn ends his book with a proposal for change, entitled “The Hope of Audacity” in which he outlines major changes he sees that needs to be made if the cultural decline is to be halted.

Although specifically addressing American issues, the concepts are universal in their application.

By Mark Steyn
Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington, 2011
ISBN 978-1-59689-100-3

– David McLeod-Jones