March 3, 2006
The return of patriarchy
Phillip Longman has an essay in Foreign Policy with that title. In short, he argues what I've been arguing for a few years now: the current secular welfare state is cultural suicide, for it promotes a decline in birthrates, which in turn leads to civilizational death.
"[D]o you distrust the army? Then, according to polling data assembled by demographers Ronny Lesthaeghe and Johan Surkyn, you are less likely to be married and have kids—or ever to get married and have kids—than those who say they have no objection to the military. Or again, do you find soft drugs, homosexuality, and euthanasia acceptable? Do you seldom, if ever, attend church? For whatever reason, people answering affirmatively to such questions are far more likely to live alone, or in childless, cohabitating unions, than those who answer negatively."
One may conclude that things like homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion, and recreational drug use are the societal equivalent of stillborn children, as they are demographic dead ends.
Our society would look very different if age-based discrimination hadn't lead to the wholesale slaughter of 8-9% of the US population over the last 30 years. We'd probably be in a much better position to resist a resurgant Islam. Then again, the people killed are largely children of those who themselves aren't great demographic bets, so maybe it's better that that segment of the population quietly declines through murdering its own, slowly increasing the percentage of viable, civilized citizens amongst the general population.
Just a modest proposal. I suppose it'd be funnier if it weren't all true.
