Programming note: Please join me tomorrow, Wednesday, for another midweeek Clubland Q&A, when I'll be taking questions from Steyn Club members live around the planet. As always, I'm happy to address whatever's on your mind. The time zones having re-aligned themselves, we're back at our regular hour for listeners in the US, Canada, Jamaica, the Caymans and one or two other places. So that's 3pm North American Eastern - which is 8pm British Summer Time/9pm Central European.
~Among other things, we shall revisit my "last photocopier in the woods" scenario, as posited at multiple times over the last decade:
I said about twenty minutes ago this thing that Alexandria Casio Cortez believes - the world will end in twelve years' time ...2030, 2031, the world's going to end.
No.
But the civilized world will end - because, at the rate we're going, in twelve years' time we will not be doing these Clubland Q&As over the internet like this. They'll have figured out some way that this isn't gonna happen anymore. I'll be in the middle of the woods with a little generator trying to crank up an old Xerox machine and copy it off in fading purple Times New Roman typeface in order to distribute it through some kind of underground railroad system. That's the way we're headed.
The "last copier in the woods" scenario is showing up somewhat sooner than scheduled. In Scotland, Ireland, Canada and elsewhere, the micro-regulation of speech - even in your own home - is being imposed without much in the way of coherent political pushback. Likewise in the land of the First Amendment, my misplaced faith in which has cost me twelve years of my life and millions of dollars in the choked septic tank of DC "justice".
It is, however, even worse for others: at least I was "sued"; there was a "case", a "controversry" to be "litigated" and "adjudicated". By contrast, VDare.com, a rare source for honest discussion of demographic transformation and its consequences, has not been convicted of any crime or even charged with one. Nevertheless, the State of New York, via a malign alliance between a hyper-politicized Attorney-General and an indulgent if not corrupt judge, has targeted VDare for destruction - and seems likely to succeed.
Conservative Inc has, as is their wont, remained largely silent. If VDare can be taken out merely for choosing to focus on immigration, what is the likelihood of the butch boys with the butch bumper music seriously addressing this subject in the years ahead?
~We hope our listeners in the Zone of Totality had a good eclipse. Since my health woes a year or so back, I've not given many interviews. But I made an exception for Frank Haviland. Part One of Mr Haviland's conversation with yours truly was published last week. Part Two can be found here.
Alternatively, you can enjoy the whole thing in audio format simply by clicking below:
Thought for the day:
Just to tie everything we've been talking about together, you can have clampdowns on this and authoritarian reactions to that, but the deciding factor in your future is when a formerly free people lose the habits of liberty. Because then they don't even... they can't even comprehend what it is that they're losing. And there's a lot of that that is visible in the UK, in Canada, in Australia, throughout his Majesty's Dominions, and in the United States. And certainly, you know, my general view is that the western world is in the bizarre position that it gets more western the further east you go - because the... in some ways the least insane governments now are to be found on the other side of what used to be the Iron Curtain. So the habits of liberty, when you lose them, you've got a whole huge relearning process that you have to come back to.
~We thank you for all your kind comments these last grisly couple of months - and thank you especially to all those new members of The Mark Steyn Club, and those old members who've signed up a chum for a SteynOnline Gift Certificate or a Steyn Club Gift Membership. Steyn Clubbers span the globe, from London, Ontario to London, England to London, Kiribati. We hope to welcome many more new members in the years ahead. And we look forward to bringing the UK state censor Ofcom into court in just over two months' time.
