Demographic Suicide

Joel Kotkin bemoans the general failure of young people today to marry, and especially, to reproduce. The failure seems to be almost universal, though he seems to limit himself to America and East Asian countries. In other parts of the world, people are reproducing effectively. 

Evidently, strong families produce social cohesion. Family dinners, it has often been remarked, contribute mightily to children’s good mental health. 

And then there is the problem of replacement value. In countries that are drowning in debt, population reduction will entail a danger-- that economic growth will not suffice to pay off the national debt.

But, then, Kotkin closes with this peculiar assertion:

….what is needed is nothing less than a rediscovery of romantic love and embracing the value of nurturing offspring. 

Not to be too persnickety, but these are both womanly values. And, dare we mention, romantic love has only rarely been connected with marriage. In the vast majority of marriages romantic love has barely entered the equation. 

We might make a better case to the effect that equating marriage with romantic love has damaged marriage. If you fall in love and get married, what do you do when the first blush of true love fades? If you are following your bliss, do you really believe that your bliss want you to be married to the same person forever.

The vast majority of marriages in human history have been arrangements. Such is more or less still the case in the world’s largest nation, India. Romantic love has existed outside of marriage, within the realm of adultery, of courtesanship.

One finds it somewhat amusing that a leading presidential candidate today, a champion of woman’s rights, got her start as a courtesan, fucking powerful men. What has feminism become?

Then again, her seductions served her career advancement, not family formation. In time she married into a family, in order to advance her career-- by becoming a wife and step-mother.

How did we get to this point?

On one side it was necessary to remove the stigma that had been previously attached to single women. On another side it was necessary to render the role of wife a sign of subjugation. Finally, it was necessary to make a fetish of aborting pregnancy, rather than allowing a pregnancy to come to term. And, it was necessary to define career success as a goal to which all women had to aspire.

In Mongolia-- to take an example at random-- the authorities noticed a falling birth rate. Their solution-- to place greater value on motherhood, to make motherhood a very positive thing. Strangely, it seems to have worked.

Modern women seem unwilling to assume the duties of motherhood. Some of them want to be mothers, but do not want to be wives. Others, especially in Japan, seem to have sworn off men altogether, as in Lysistrata. 

Of course, we need to mention that certain groups do not fit this template. Muslims, for example, are reproducing at a rate that goes beyond replacement. At a time when we value democracy, our future increasingly seems to belong to those who reproduce more offspring.

To some extent, the problem is a woman’s problem. And the problem must be feminism. As a force for cultural revolution feminism has redefined the role of women in society. Like it or not, it has contributed to a stark division between men and women.

The result has shown itself in politics. According to Kotkin, and to many others, young men are more likely to veer toward right wing causes while young women in particular veer toward the political left. 

Worse yet, America in the future will be comprised, Kotkin suggests, of disconnected individuals who are warring against their own feelings of loneliness. 

Yet, if some groups out-reproduce others, then they will have an outsized influence over the future.

Obviously, this is a Western, more than an Eastern problem. People from around the world come to America and Europe. When they do, they can become Americans or Europeans.

If they migrate to Japan, they are never going to become Japanese.

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