Following Mark Steyn’s excellent expose of the affluent West’s demographic suicide in It’s the Demography, Stupid, Phillip Longman presents an intruiguing piece at Foreign Policy entitled The Return of Patriarchy. Longman writes:
"Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy."
For those who equate patriarchy with misogyny, go get an education. For those who think of parenthood more as a consumer choice (wittingly or otherwise) than a sacrificial commitment to transcendant goods, go take a peek at your future.
Update 03/19/06: Annie Gottlieb (Ambivablog) has tossed in her two cents on this matter.
Steve,
Thanks. That was the funniest thing I’ve read this morning. I couldn’t have kept a straight face the way you did.
Um, scratch that last comment. I thought I was on a different blog with a different Steve. That’s what I get for rapid-fire surfing the bloglist.
Sorry.
Whew, Rob, you just saved yourself from a mean-spirited, self-righteous, uber-snarky retort. Darn, I’ll have to save it for later 😉