One of the thing that is happening in the west is that we are neither marrying nor breeding. We have dissolved the fundamental tenet of marriage since the beginning of he agricultural revolution — predating the laws of Moses, but to the time of patriarchs: that love is all in. It is once. For life.
Those of us who are divorced, by the grace of God, can repent, (indeed we all need to repent daily) and may love again. But we have lost the sense that our love is to the grave. For when I wed, I hoped that I would be with that one for life, for ever. Our myths say that love is stronger than the grave: our movies celebrate one love, forever.
But we have destroyed this by saying that spiritual development and happiness matter more. I am not sure about this pretty lie. What we need is hope: what we need is a knowledge that we will outlast the stars, in the next life if not this. If we have hope for ourselves and our tribe, we will bring children to this world. David Goldman writes wisely on this (be aware the linked passage discusses pederasty among Sufi poets. Not safe for children or SJWs).
It is not only the passion of love that challenges death, but the fruit of love, the birth of children, that keeps death at bay. Nature appears to have arranged matters so that these two presentiments of immortality occur together. The Judeo-Christian God becomes the partner of human lovers: “Lovers could not love if they did not have an ally against death, if the only certainty were the grave and silence,” writes Michael Wyschogrod. Anyone who has been in love with someone of the opposite sex knows precisely what I am talking about. Those who have not may consult the Song of Songs, for example:
The love of bride and bridegroom is not quite the same thing as the love of God and his congregation, but the passion as strong as death that unites men and women is analogous to the encounter with the Other in the person of God.
No parent in a time of horror wants to have children. To bear a child, to love it, and then have to kill it to prevent it being destroyed is a horror no one wants. If a parent cannot see a future, they will simply enjoy pleasures while they can: let us hold each other now, for tomorrow we die.
Without the LORD Almighty building our nations and houses, we are as foolish as a man confronting his enemies without a clan to back him up, by force if needed.
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(Psalm 127 ESV)
Children are a blessing. Let me say that again, Children are a blessing. I have three children: tomorrow I am going to a conference and after that I have the joy of spending a few brief days with my daughter and her three children.
In Ancient times, when you got to my age, you needed to have a few young sons who could enforce your will. The police did not exist, and the army was frequently a tool of imperial occupation. The sons kept the farm going. The sons defended your wife and grandchildren.
It is only in modern times, with no fault divorce and child support, that having a child is seen with horror. A distraction from your career. As if a career is your lover, or your child. Neither can give you joy in the evening or warmth at night.
Barry, the minister at my church, calls children the heart of the congregation. Without children, we are useless, we are nothing. He’s only half right. What children are is a sign that the LORD is building the house.
For history belongs to those who turn up. Who are alive at this time. The witness of the past is for us. h
Capitalism is at fault here. Remember half of all young euro Folk under 30 in the US and everywhere else lack the basic resources for family formation, steady income, enough for a place to live and so.
They get by on the dole and wisely looking at that life a great many of them, among them out solid middle have said “I’m not raising a child in this poverty”
Its the right thing to do.
White people in general want children and even the lowest fertility rates have TFR numbers that suggest that the average family size would be well above replacement if the were jobs for most,
Its just the elite either don’t care or the ones that do to some degree are saying “well they raised kids in squalid rookeries before, why aren’t they now?”
we fix that, make incomes go up, get steady work for people and Europeans will have plenty of children, 2 or more in most cases.
Get rid of Cultural Marxism and ethnic guilt and you’ll have even more, maybe enough for them to grow.
It is not necessarily capitalism, but the regulations that restrict land use and make building expensive: that make hiring others risky, and force businesses to fill forms that the bureaucracy lose.
AB, if capitalism has destroyed the family, please explain to me why the marriage rate has plunged as the size of the state (as measured as % of GDP and in absolute terms) has skyrocketed.
Socialism is what is destroying the family by removing the need for the husband and father–or at least removing the perceivedneed for the same, to be more specific.
bike bubba, I don’t disagree that welfare system has negative effects on the patriarchal family but its also incumbent to remember that the US had birth rates plummet in the 1930’s when the Welfare state was tiny, there was no birth control and it was more or less a quite religious patriarchy. It was about what it was in 2009 actually, just below replacement and around that of the 1970’s. No birth control, no feminism required.
Our host here is most correct in saying children are a blessing , I couldn’t agree more but they still cost money to raise and life in poverty is a curse . Since majority of people in the West of peak fertile age cannot make ends meet especially if they add more than one child , they are doing the right thing and not having children they cannot afford.
As for capitalism, the only reason the US or the west has a middle class at all is the State intervening. It was state action and the threat of mass strikes and our communist/socialist/fascist overthrow that prompted workers safety and the minimum wage and created the middle class.
The number of voluntary practitioners of Henry Fordism is too small to support an economy. The classic example in the Kellogg Company. For years they got everything done in a 30 hour work week but sooner than later, the shareholder hungry for more power of the workers and thinking somehow they were cheated, crammed a 40 hour work week down their throats.
The net result, less productivity and a less happy work force. No economic benefit at all. They thing is the calculus involved isn’t rational, its about power and status and a dopamine high you can no more reason with someone like that than you can any other drug addict.
The situation we have now is a product of automation and the lack of fear of reprisal from the State or alternate state arrangements or mobs as of yet and that vast dichotomy between the wealthy and the rest of us is creating the birth dearth.
The best solution though is not a welfare state but to change the incentives to what G.K. Chesterton called Distributism. Otherwise the smart people will not reproduce and the dysgenic pressures will swamp us.