I feel too much blame is placed on feminism, contraception, etc. That’s all a symptom of the overall problem. When I think of the average anti-family vibe in this day, I hear people say that they need to delay having kids or limit the number of kids because of reasons that just didn’t exist before the rise of this culture we have built. Today, we want to finish college. Go to grad school perhaps. Celebrate the 15-20 years of education with focusing on establishing our careers and dating and traveling and going to concerts and seeng art museums. We are incredibly more free these days. We have a lot more options. The individual in the U.S. has so much mobility and resources to do stuff people 150 years ago couldn’t dream of. You’re average goof out of college with a decent enough low-paying job can go backpacking in Europe for 2 weeks, own his own place and lease a new car.
All this stuff points to the fact that in the West we value individual freedom and the fulfillment of our own will to an incredible extent. Even those of us who want kids “don’t want too many kids” because we want to be able to afford a decent house, afford to send our kids to college, have enough money to retire on and live comfortably and perhaps travel again. It sounds insane to our ears to not want to ensure we have those things.
So the anti-family vibe I hear has nothing to do with being against family as much as it is against not being able to fulfill the individual’s will. It’s a rejection of anything that’s in the way of making one’s dreams come true in terms of career, diversions, travel, etc.
And it’s taking me a while to realize this is has been a terribly empty pursuit. (For me personally—I should add—because this is the internet and we have to qualify things like that.)
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom.
All since the 1960’s and is it funny that that is when we saw the rise of feminism and embracing of contraceptives. Some make the mistake of calling it freedom.
