Tuesday, July 8, 2008

No Babies, or, Europe as Nursing Home

Will wonders never cease. Even the New York Times deigns to notice what Mark Steyn and other Cassandras have been saying for years in No Babies?
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2 comments:

David Nybakke said...

Ath,
The article (and I guess the issue presented from economical and/or nationalistic vantage) really was a roller-coaster ride for me. Like this comment:

The old conservative argument — that a traditional, working-husband-and-stay-at-home-wife family structure produces a healthy, growing population — doesn’t apply, either in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world today. Indeed, the societies most wedded to maintaining that traditional family structure seem to be those with the lowest birthrates.

and he follows that up in a couple sentences with:

Some commentators explain its (the US) healthy birthrate in terms of the relatively conservative and religiously oriented nature of American society, which both encourages larger families. It’s also true that mores have evolved in the U.S. to the point where not only is it socially acceptable for fathers to be active participants in raising children, but it’s also often socially unacceptable for them to do otherwise.

Excuse me, but isn't this flip-flopping?

I know that I am a simpleton (an ignorant, foolish, & silly person) but to me these number-crunchers do all sorts of somersaults to justify their own bias staying well within their VERY limited field of "expertise." Coupled with their blindness of the origins of culture (scapegoat and mimetic crisis) they interpret research data and facts from their bias (which is more in tune with myth than actual reality as seen through Gospel eyes), thus providing the (wavering-in-the-wind-trying-to-stay-ahead-of-the-mob) policy-makers no "big picture" scenario. They stay securely within current mindset or methodology - and that is economical or sociological, and thus staying in the same 'ol pot stirring the same 'ol soup.

So I agree with your post, and yes, it is great to see a major media extend black type to the issue. But it appears to me that it is going to take a lot more concrete (Gospel and Girardian anthropology) understanding of this crisis before it will bring change to policy-makers around the world, in particular Europe.

July 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM
Athos said...

...it is going to take a lot more concrete (Gospel and Girardian anthropology) understanding of this crisis before it will bring change to policy-makers around the world, in particular Europe.

I like your hopefulness, Aramis. Of course the NYT would approach this issue from their postmodern stance, which you are right to light and watch go up in its dry-tinder flames (as Our Lord said it would/wood in St John's Gospel).

But I fear it will take far more than policy-makers and governmental mandarins to bring about CONVERSION in the west, even if they find Girardian materials under their very noses. I'm not telling you anything new here.

That is why, in my (and your) post-cancer reality check days, I put much more stock in Our Lady of Lourdes advice to pray for sinners - including both presidential candidates, keep hope (and faith and charity) alive sacramentally, and look for signs of a sea-change ... even in as unlikely a place as the NYT!

July 9, 2008 at 12:30 PM

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