Lacking Generosity
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Grandpuppies and grandkitties. When aging
baby boomers talk about the newest generation, that’s the lament I’m
hearing from many. They wish they could take care of grandchildren for a
weekend when their grown-up children go away, but there aren’t any
grandchildren because their grown-up sons and daughters aren’t producing
any. Instead, they raise dogs and cats, so they ask their boomer parents
to watch their pets for them when they go to Bermuda or Cancun, or
wherever. That’s what it has come to. It’s one unforeseen result of the
fervent boomer belief that our planet is overpopulated.
Boomers grew up during the fifties when families produced a lot of
children. When their turn came, however, they wanted fewer children than
their “Greatest Generation” parents raised. Was it because birth control
became more widely available? Must be a factor since they were certainly
having sex often enough. This they proclaimed to the world as their
“sexual revolution.” They separated sex from reproduction and family
life, claiming marriage and family were too constricting. The
institutions which had held society together for millennia were
“oppressive.” “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one[s]
you’re with.” Opposite sex? Same sex? Both? Didn’t matter. Boomers
“liberated” themselves. They insisted it was all to the good. They still
do in spite of mountains of contrary evidence. The Democrat Party
platform reflects their “values.”
In spite of birth control, all that sex resulted in many pregnancies.
“Liberated” feminists insisted they had a constitutional right to
abortion and convinced a liberal majority on the US Supreme Court of
this. Boomers would abort the children they didn’t want and many would
insist that government (meaning people other than them) pay for the ones
they did want. Democrats called it the “War on Poverty.” Forty years
hence they say “It Takes A Village” to raise a child. It’s the same
concept though. Fathers and Mothers aren’t important anymore. They would
get rid of “Mothers’ Day” and “Fathers’ Day,” claiming such terms are
“sexist.” They insist gender roles are artificial but homosexuality is
natural. Government knows what is best for kids, not parents. How will
government pay for all this? Raise taxes on the “rich” or course. The
rich are defined as people other than them.
Not all boomer-raised children swallow that entire philosophy. They
avoid children because raising kids is very expensive, requiring a lot
of work and enormous sacrifice of time and emotional energy. They pursue
a lifestyle in which kids would just be a drag. If they should get
lonely, it’s much easier to get a dog or a cat. They can be left alone
all day without a babysitter. On extended vacations, they can be boarded
somewhere or left with friends or with their boomer parents. If pangs of
guilt about their refusal to reproduce should intrude, they can justify
their selfishness claiming they’re conserving resources and shrinking
their “carbon footprint.” Their “green” lifestyle is saving the earth.
They’re doing homage to Gaia. They’re preserving habitat for other
organisms by not reproducing themselves.
Aging liberal boomers should be rejoicing that their children are living
out their philosophies, but the ones I’ve talked to don’t seem to be.
Rather, they seem sad. They feel they’re missing out on something and
they are, of course. Western civilization’s advances have enabled them
to live longer lives, but they can’t spend those extra years with the
grandchildren if their children aren’t producing any. Similar things are
happening in Japan where doll manufacturers are now making artificial,
robotic dolls which function as surrogate grandchildren for the
grandchildless. I’m not kidding.
Population in Europe is declining too. They’ve increased immigration
from Muslim countries to the south to compensate, but that is presenting
another set of problems and a backlash has begun against it in Holland,
Switzerland, Italy, France and Germany. Europe’s population is aging and
there are fewer young people to support the old folks because the
generation in between hasn’t generated much. Liberal European retirement
benefits cannot be sustained much longer.
Lamenting this situation with a Spanish priest I met in Jerusalem last
May, I asked him why he thought young Europeans or Americans were not
having children. His answer was simple and succinct: “They lack
generosity,” he said. I had been inclined to discuss the subject further
but I paused. He was right. It was that simple. When all is said and
done, that’s what it comes down to. The “It Takes a Village” to raise a
child view is misleading. What it really takes to raise a child is
generosity and self-sacrifice, so let’s just say it out loud: Village or
no village, today’s young people don’t have what it takes.
