Friends, once upon a time the American dream was more than just home ownership and material success: it also involved marriage and child-rearing. Today, Americans wait longer than ever to get married, and many people never do. Meanwhile, our birth rate is reaching record lows, and increasingly people of means and education choose not to have children at all. I recommend the following article to you, which discusses the social/cultural/political problem that this demographic slump represents. A society that cannot even be bothered to reproduce itself is a unique problem in history. Immigration can soften the blow, yes, but it is by no means a comprehensive answer to the predicament. My opinion is that we should stop castigating "family values," stop beating up on men and suggesting that they are the enemy of womankind, and rediscover and respect the institution of marriage. What's your view?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/20/heres-why-it-matters-that-americans-are-having-fewer-children-than-ever-before.html
Dr. Waddy: For some reason I am denied access to the article. Based on the sense I get of it from your commentary and your commentary itself: Keeping in mind that the radical American left has as its prime purpose the destruction of our culture and our society, it is understandable that they would advance attacks on such fundamentals as marriage and men/women relations (how much more fundamental can you get?) They must be confronted by those convinced of the yes, fundamental, soundness of our way of life here in the West. (In the Eastern world, the nihilism we must tolerate is dealt with in summary fashion). We have a test case of what may happen in America should we shrink from defending our culture, in Western Europe. Which nation there will surrender, through misplaced guilt, to the dominance of a civilization historically opposed to those molded by the Rennaisance and the Enlightenment, that of militant Islam? My guess would be France or Italy. We must observe closely. The America hating left is supportive of Islamic imperialism,(see David Horowitz's Unholy Alliance: Militant Islam and the American Left) though it would in it, should Militant Islam prevail, realize its own death. We must be its Nemesis, lest it open the gate.
ReplyDeleteThe problems you identify, Waddy, are silly. How is "beating up on men" leading to a lower fertility rate? What proof do you offer that "family values" are being "castigated"? The fact is, the fertility problem in the U.S. is a white problem. Blacks, Asian Americans and especially Hispanics have fertility rates substantially higher than whites. In addition, Jeremy Carl's note that states with the highest fertility rates supported Trump ignores the fact that those fertility rates were skewed by the number of black and Hispanic births in those states (states, by the way, most likely to have voting laws that seek to suppress the voting rights of people of color).
ReplyDeleteMaybe the problem is that white Republican men just can't get it up!
Jack, I think you're right: the current elite in the West has a civilizational death wish. They frankly celebrate the demographic decline of the West, and they aren't too keen on humans in general, because of their environmental impact. They would no doubt recommend childlessness to any white person, although naturally they wouldn't be so hasty with non-whites.
ReplyDeleteRod, there's no doubt that the status of men has suffered in recent decades. Look at endless objective measures -- from incarceration, educational attainment, drug use, unemployment, etc. -- and you'll see that men have taken it on the chin. The cultural hostility to men is even more pronounced. Men have so little leverage in cases of divorce, and so little authority over the children that they father, that it's no wonder they would think twice about marriage and fatherhood -- although women too are much less eager than they were in the past. Bottom line: patriarchy has its disadvantages, to be sure, but EVERYWHERE it is correlated with higher birth rates. And yes, Hispanics have higher birth rates, but Hispanic fertility inside and outside of the U.S. has tumbled. We'll all be in the same boat soon. As for states with the highest birth rates, I haven't seen the list, but I suspect topping it would be Utah, and that has nothing to do with blacks and Hispanics. It's the Mormons who really know how to procreate!