Still pondering world demographics and the end of Western culture after reading America Alone. I found myself getting really annoyed and upset about the fact that countries like Italy and Spain have such abysmal birth rates that their cultures may vanish completely. As the book said, it'll still be named Spain or Italy but the culture will be completely different. I wonder what kind of people just let their culture die.
But then I realized that there is no reason for people to care if they don't have children. If there's no one coming behind us, who cares what the future looks like? I want the US to survive, politically and culturally, partly because I have children and I want their future to look a lot like my present. (Only better, of course.) But if I didn't have children, would I care? Well, I have 6 nieces and nephews, and 1 of them has a couple of kids; the others could someday. I'd like them to have this Western culture that I love too. But what if I didn't have those kids to think about? Would I care about the children of friends? Would I care about random children that I don't know?
Why did men go off to fight the Nazis so eagerly? What were they fighting for? Many of them, no doubt, had no children. Why did they care if the Nazis overtook Europe and then, eventually, the US? Why do men join the volunteer army to go to Iraq now? Some of them are fighting for their kids' futures, but not all. Why do some care about and fight for the future and some - don't?
The current rising generation is a very self-absorbed group of people. (This is not an original thought.) Young men are not bothering to marry or even to grow up. Women are still having babies, but often don't seem to care about giving them a future (like those high school girls in Gloucester, MA; you can google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's all over the place) or like the gals who figure they can do a better job raising kids on their own, who needs a stupid man around? And of course all these fatherless boys are not going to grow up with any idea of honor and defending one's country and culture. The woman:man::fish:bicycle crowd is interested in creating their own culture, possibly looking like a colony of wasps (but with more queens). What are these self- or celebrity-absorbed mothers going to teach their boys? The US will not have the ability to defend itself; enough people won't care to. I'd guess that the time will come when few people will care what kind of government is in power, as long as the checks keep coming and the tv reception is good.
What about those monks who "saved civilization" by copying out ancient Greek and Roman texts during the dark ages? They didn't have children. Of whom were they thinking when they were doing all that work? Why did they bother? Did they know their work would end the dark ages and bring Western culture back to life?
Who will bother to preserve our culture?
4 comments:
As world culture begins to flounder, so does the male chromosome. Related? Maybe.
Here's a story from NPR
I'm sorry, Marbel, but I am laughing now. Your question is "death of the culture- who cares?" Judging from the number of comments you've received, apparently it's just the four of us. Hey, if enough homeschool moms start praying I think we can take them. LOL
Ah, Edward, thanks, you are alway good for some uplifting reading.
Sandy, too funny - you know, this isn't one of those heavy-traffic blogs. You are right with your comment. Homeschoolers often have big families. The people who will "win" are the ones that have the most babies.
I haven't read America Alone, but Mark Steyn is interviewed regularly on a talk show I listen to. I absolutely love him, he is so spot on and saying things that 10-15 years ago only those radical large homeschooling families were saying. He has such a common sense refreshing way of saying things.
I thought "How the Irish Saved Civilization" (Thomas Cahill)was about the most inspiring homeschool book I've read. Funny, since it has nothing to do with homeschool really. But I tell my kids "most people don't know anything about Shakespheare. You need to remember it" or the Bible or American history or the fall of Rome.. I see myself kind of like those monks in those dark days. Only instead of writing on tablets, I'm writing on people. :)
Post a Comment