It has become clear that Europe is committing demographic suicide, and I wondered how it came to be that a significant part of the West, at the forefront of history, could have so little faith in themselves as to stop reproducing. These are people who consider themselves (and are considered by many Americans) to be more sophisticated than us new world rubes. How can we start to explain this, and what does it portend for us?
A number of different strands seem to be coming together at this time. At a time when liberal democratic capitalism has given large numbers of people unbelievable riches, when even the poorest Americans own color TVs, computers, and have too much to eat, when we are at the height of our powers, we are facing an existential battle on multiple fronts. We are struggling with enemies who would kill us and brutalize us in the name of an angry God; they cannot beat us without destroying multiple civilizations along the way, but mass death and destruction will not deter them. We are also struggling with members of our own society who firmly believe that fighting against evil is evil, and that we, in fact, are the greatest evil. But on the horizon is the greatest danger, that our natural allies in Europe are giving up without much of a fight. How has this happened?
The Decline and (possible) Fall of Western Civilization started in the fabled 1960's. In the 1960's, all of the old verities were under attack. Communism was on the ascendancy, having survived Stalin to be seen as the champions of the oppressed and therefore, the champions of a higher, albeit god-less, morality. Capitalism seemed rapacious, willing to lay waste to the rest of the world, not to mention our own environment, in the quest of a few to amass wealth (neglecting to notice that only wealthy people and wealthy societies have the time, energy, and resources to protect the environment and lift the standard of living for their poorest members). The United States, the first nation on earth to outlaw slavery* (this is an error; take a look at Dr. George's comment below), was being torn apart because of our inability to completely resolve our racial tensions overnight. The Viet Nam war raged, with no end in sight, a seemingly unwinnable war (we were never going to risk nuclear Armageddon in order to defeat the North Vietnamese) that our MSM, with their unchallenged position as information gatekeepers, decided we were losing just at the moment we had victory within reach. I hasten to add, much of what we were doing was noble and moral, but as with so many good intentions, we now have to live with the consequences of the youthful quest to "question authority".
Meanwhile, at home, the party was just getting into full swing. The 1960's saw the popular availability of the birth control pill, a revolution in human biology whose repercussions, unintended as they were, are still being felt.
I believe that the introduction of the birth control pill set in motion a cascading series of events which have lead us to this: The future of Western, liberal democracy, the greatest civilization man has ever produced, is at serious risk. Only if we are able to synthesize a new model out of the chaotic mix of personal narcissism and hedonism, with a diminishing sense of personal responsibility and agency, with religious and ideological fundamentalism, and multiple other centrifugal forces acting on our community, can we hope to survive as a recognizable civilization which allows the individual to make full use of his or her talents and abilities. There is nothing inevitable about our triumph or perpetuation in a world where chance has played more than a leading role.
I hope to be able to construct a convincing argument to support my contention, with one important corner stone: Civilization is first and foremost, about the children.
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