The Siege of Western Civilization

Herb Meyer--an intelligence adviser to Ronald Reagan, former magazine editor, ubiquitous pundit, and onetime Republican candidate to Congress--lays out several depressing scenarios concerning America and Europe's possible demise in this right-wing screed. Defining "Western civilization" as the reconciliation, centuries ago, of Judeo-Christianity with modernity (a happy event that yielded the Renaissance and U.S.-style democracy, among other things), Meyer argues that the Islamic world has not experienced a similar fusion of faith and socio-cultural-scientific progress--making radical fundamentalism in the Middle East a serious threat to the West, a problem which can only be alleviated by building bridges to moderate Muslims. Meanwhile, Meyer continues, the West's economic security is in danger of being undermined due to decreasing population rates, and America herself is threatened from within by environmentalists, hippies, secularists, gay-marriage proponents, etc. Meyer's solution to both, not surprisingly, is a pro-family clampdown on alternative lifestyles. Meyer's entitled to his worldview, of course, but a creeping paranoia in his opinions--not to mention an apparent willingness to trample civil rights--makes it hard to take him seriously. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)