On Unintended Consequences and the Death of Europe

Be pro-life and patriotic. Have another baby.

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.

 

Small Town, USA: Where Have all the Children Gone?

The birth dearth is starting to impact small town USA and the results aren't pretty. Pro-lifers have  described the disastrous impact of a declining birth rate for decades. Finally, the secularists are beginning to catch up. USA Today's weekend edition (June3-5) carried a front page cover story about the impact of the birth dearth in Levittown, PA and other suburban communities around the U.S. It begins:

In 1960, the year Helen Cini gave birth to one of her five children, 15 other kids were born on her block here in this quintessential post-war American suburb.  The local obstetrician was so busy he often slept in his car.

Kathy Bachman felt like an oddity when her family moved to Cherry Lane in the Crabtree section of Levittown when she was 5. She was an only child, and "everybody had five or six kids in every house."

One of the Advantages of an Aging Population

The demographic winter which is the inevitable result of an aging population with two few young people is a major problem, but it does offer one distinct advantage -- the ability to find modest bathing suits. You don't see many flabby grandmas in bikinis at the beach. Oh, there are a few loony ladies who let all their bulges hang out, but most have enough sense to know they look foolish stuffing an elephant body into a canary suit.

Twenty-five years ago I would go to the beach and lament the fact that there wasn't a modest suit on the racks at the suit shops - nothing but the teeny weenie bikini. Now, I'm complimenting young moms at the beach wearing two piece suits with little shorts and long tops or swimdresses. There is still plenty of skin, but not nearly as much as there used to be.

Now if we could just get those moms and grandmas (Even better dads who should be protecting their daughters!) to lay down the law with their nearly nude teenage daughters we could really celebrate! 

L.L. Bean and Lands End are two places to shop for sensible, modest suits. I recommend buying at the end of the season for the next summer for great prices if you don't mind not having full selection.