I
was reading “Capital in the Twenty-first Century” by Thomas Piketty (when it
first came out I did not have the capital to buy it and had to wait for the prices
to fall to paperback level), and I became fascinated with Piketty’s discussion
concerning trends in population growth.
He says that it is difficult to gage future trends in population because
so much depends on the decision making processes of the women involved, and men
to a lesser degree. What was refreshing
was that, at least so far in the chapter I am reading, he did not mention what all
the other Experts seem to invariably mention – that Population Growth Declines
Wherever Women Are Educated. I had
recently commented on such an assertion on some YouTube video. I am almost completely certain that the Mechanism
involved here that influences women to abstain from, postpone, or limit their Child Bearing is involved
with their concerns for their Incomes and Careers. Yes, we are told that Standards of Living are
going up in the Developing World, but how much of this is due to the fact that
now it has become the New Normal for each Family to have Two Breadwinners. To be cynical about it, where Traditionally
each family only had to sacrifice One Slave, the Man, to the God Mammon, now
they must sacrifice two. Now, with all it
must take in order for a Household to pay its bills and make its way in a Consumer
World, the idea of taking the time off from Work and budgeting for the expense
of having, raising, and educating children… well, we can see how any practical
and economical woman would hesitate to have as many babies as her mother had
before her… a Mother who may have been very well educated but who didn’t Have
To Go To Work. So it is not about
Education. It is about Women having been
Coopted by Capitalism. Ironically, Women
have been Enslaved by their “Liberation” – Orwell would have loved this one.
But,
yes, for all of us who are worried about the Health of Planet Earth and
Sustainability, it may have been reassuring to somehow believe that Well
Educated Woman would somehow develop a repugnance for babies, and think of
becoming mothers with a level of distaste.
But once we wake up to the nonsensical sound of such a proposition, then
it occurs to us that IF we can somehow break our chains and struggle free of Capitalism
and establish an Equitable World in which we can all modestly prosper, and
where neither Men nor Women are any longer Enslaved and forced to make
desperate survival choices, well, we could probably expect the Birthrate to
Skyrocket. The fact is that, generally
speaking, Women Like Babies.
I
think it would become unavoidable that
some Institutional Limit would have to be placed on the number of Babies being
output. But we would still have to
address the Issue of Satisfying Women’s Needs for Maternal Fulfillment. So, let’s think about that for a while. I
have heard that in Wolf Packs, only the Dominant Female Wolf is allowed to have
litters, but that All Adult Female Wolves are invited to participate in the
Family. Each Pup has a number of loving
and caring ‘Aunts’. Now, for an example
involving Humans – not many people know, but the Nuclear Family as the Primary
Social Unit has not always been the case.
Before, and in many parts of the World still, the Extended Family was
the Primary Social Unit. Husbands and Wives
were not isolated together and forced to live apart from Society. The broader Extended Family must have been Great
for the Children, since they had so many Role Models to choose from, for, in
the instances that their own Mothers were nervous wrecks or something, or their
fathers mean hopeless drunks or whatever, then the Children could focus on
those in their Family Compound that were obviously Better Respected and had
higher appraised Social Status, and then grow up to be just like Them. Oh, I had heard in regards to Biblical
Translations that it is very misleading to suppose that Jesus had so many ‘brothers’,
since in Aramaic the word “brother” is the same as for the word “cousin” which
tends to signify that at one time the Social Unit was indeed the broad Extended
Family – where children were so mixed together that it was considered
insignificant as to exactly which of them came from the same mother. Oh, and in primitive tribal groups and small bands,
the Men lived apart in their own huts and tents (smoking, drinking, gambling
and cussing to their hearts content) while the Women took up their own
quarters, and, again, where the children of all the Women were largely mixed
together. Remember the saying that comes
from somewhere “It takes a Village to raise a child”.
Well,
in our Bright and Sunny Future World we might have to replicate what had been
so successful in our past, along with what we can learn from the Wolves. We can re-organize the way in which we take
up Residence. Honestly, Men are not
happy living with Women, and Women are not Happy living with Men. The Decline of the Family is mostly the fault
of its inherently flawed assumption that Men and Women SHOULD find each other
agreeable on a long term basis. Yes, of
course there is Love. But Love between
Men and Women flourishes on their being Separated for the better part of the
time. Love is Best during the Time of
Dating – when Men and Women could see each other when both were most calculating
to present the best manners and appearance.
Remember the adage that “familiarity breeds contempt”. How many marriages crumble because of words
said while absently irritable and grumpy, which never would have been said during
the 4 or 5 hours dedicated to Being On One’s Best Behavior for a Date.
Oh,
I remember a somewhat amusing tale from my college days – we were studying the
Spartans and how they had separate quarters for Men and Women, and one of the
students wondered “How could they have Babies?”
Well, most of us just laughed, since, even as young as we were, we already
knew, or suspected, how relatively easy it is to ‘sneak sex’. But in a household, where over familiarity
has somewhat poisoned the well of Good Feelings, then couples who Live Together
can often go months without having sex, or so I have read and friends have told
me, etc.
So,
yes, even if the number of Children are limited in the Future, well, we would
have to arrange that All women who would like to could participate in the
Maternal Fun – that Babies become an integral part of the Residential Schematic
for these Women…. And that Men can visit only when they are presentably dressed
and on their best behavior – in order to be the Best Possible Role Models –
little boys, and the little girls who think they are little boys, should not
know about smoking, drinking, cussing and gambling before they know algebra and
world geography. At least in their
formative years, children should positioned in a way so that they are lead to
have respect for men, as that might go a long way towards assuring that they
almost automatically grow up to be Respectable.
As it is today, in order to be Respectable many of us have to largely
deconstruct out Childhoods. As a Society
we should be able to do better than that.
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