Something occured to me about the European demographic argument

Longtime readers know I’m in basic agreement with Mark Steyn about the demographic situation in Europe.

Simply summarized, much of Western Europe is in serious danger of ceasing to be “European” in any meaningful sense, due to, 1) disastrous population decline of the indigenous European populations, combined with 2) in-migration of mostly Muslim non-Europeans who have a birthrate from three to five times higher than the native Europeans.

I’ve read criticism of Steyn’s argument. Some run something like: the Muslim birthrate in Europe is already slowing down and will level off well before they achieve even parity of numbers with the local population.

Steyn counters that it isn’t necessary for the incomers to outnumber the locals. At some point in time the dominant socio-political concern of the country will be relations between indigenous and immigrant populations, possessing different and antithetical cultural and ethical values.

To put it even more bluntly, the two cultures cannot share a nation in peace, one or the other must prevail.

We think people have a right to say whatever they like no matter how offensive, young people have a right to choose who they will marry, and women have the right to express their opinions.

The Muslim communities of Britain, the Netherlands, etc… think differently. And what was once a smug assumption by European intellectuals that they’d come to see things our way, has yielded to calls to “compromise” with what cannot be compromised with and maintain a free society.

So here’s what struck me recently. Genetic research on the population of England has revealed something rather startling. The “English” who we Celts have called “Sassanach” or “Saxon” for ages now, are in fact still overwhelmingly Celtic by genetic heritage.

For a long time the received wisdom has been that the Saxon invaders swept into England, displacing the native Celtic populations, destroying the Romano-British civilization mythologized in the tales of King Arthur, and drove the British Celts across the mountains into Wales. After yet another Nordic invasion, a firmly established Norman-Saxon kingdom established dominance over the “Celtic fringe” of the British Isles, but did not replace the local populations.

Well as it turns out, the Saxon contribution to the gene pool of England is actually quite small.

But this is the point: their culture, their language, their law, and customs almost totally displaced that of their Celtic subjects. Christianity almost disappeared from England, and had to be reintroduced at a later date.

Now although I am a proud Anglo-Celt, I have to say Saxon law and culture is not so bad. So sue me. And the synergy between the Norman-Saxon culture and the Celtic fringe produced something that came to marvelous fruition in America.

Now I ask, even centuries down the road, can you see the same happening in Europe, if Europe falls? Or do you see a new Dark Ages that might never produce another renaissance?