Demographic Death is Upon Us

Pat Buchanan's article on the Land of the Setting Sun outlines the demographic death of Japan because of its 40 year birth dearth. Japan is not alone, however, in its transition from a youthful country full of hope to an aging one limping toward death. The entire west is collapsing. And the east isn't far behind. While the population is still growing worldwide, which makes the doom-and-gloom crowd continue to screech about "overpopulation," the real numbers are sobering. And the statistics are increasingly lopsided toward the elderly. Visualize a scale with a brick on one side and a pebble on the other and you'll get the picture. Life-expectancy of a person over 65 is relatively short. I'm at the front of the baby boom and go on Medicare this month. I have no plans to check out anytime soon (although the euthanasia crowd may have other plans for me), but I'm a realist. My dad died at 67 and my mom at 83. The end of the trail is a lot closer than the beginning. And since the over 65 age group is huge compared to generation whatever being born now, once we hit mid century, overall population will be in a nosedive.

But, as they say, every dark cloud has a silver lining. The upside is there. A world that considers babies consumer items, valued according to mom's "choice," also is beginning to recognize that the young have value and mom's "choice" may need to be limited. A world that won't do the right thing for moral reasons, may very well begin to do the right thing for economic ones. Russia, for example, introduced tighter restrictions on abortion last year. They are unlikely to have much impact in the long run since abortion is still easy available in the early months of pregnancy when most abortions are performed. But at least it is a step.

Also, the policies espoused by liberals have the unintended  (one presumes) consequence of reducing liberals since people of faith, like my own family with grandchild twenty-one due this summer, continue to procreate at a rate far outpacing their liberal peers. Don't misunderstand. I can't rejoice at liberals killing their children or choosing the immorality of contraception, but it does have a consequence of allowing the voice of God's faithful to ring out more loudly. The answer to that "problem" is for liberals to attempt to steal our children through perversion education in the public schools (well advanced), indoctrination in college (also common since most college profs are liberals), and mind-numbing media. It is a gloomy picture even for Christian optimists who believe "All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and serve according to His purpose."

T.S. Eliot wrote about our times when he penned The Hollow Men:

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

And, in the end, short of a miracle of grace, we will see his prophecy realized:

This is the way the world endsThis is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.