Where We Are This Week

A trip to a splash pad, why Americans aren't making babies like they should, and how the Israeli hostage rescue proves me right about the previous assertion.

It’s not children who make the world worse, it’s the adults they inevitably become.

That’s not entirely their fault, either, is it? I mean, having your every desire indulged or being pacified by a screen doesn’t exactly set you up to be a well-adjusted member of civil society.

As a population, we like children less than we should. I saw a dog park at an apartment complex in a trendy part of town where there ought to have been a playground. I guess the kids could play on the ramps and step over the feces. In the same part of town, I saw a restaurant advertise that it was dog-friendly. Thank goodness, I was hoping to feed my 70-pound goldendoodle an $18 salad while it growled at the toddler at the next table.

I read an account of a woman who was so worried about the undue discomfort her crying baby may cause on a long flight that she crafted apology letters and gift bags for all 150 passengers on the plane. In the bags were earplugs and chewing gum. I’m sure the cleaning crew were thrilled with that decision.

When my wife and I were at the beach, we were advised to go to an upscale restaurant if only our daughter weren’t with us.

You see what I mean?

We need children around, and I don’t just mean that in the ‘let’s prolong our existence on the planet’ kind of way.

We took our little girl to the same splash pad twice this week. She’s shy and needs a little encouragement before she fully engages with the activity. This led to me playing in the water fully clothed just to get her warmed up to the idea. Being in the thick of it, however, gave me a valuable perspective.

My daughter was as happy playing in the water as she was watching me make a fool of myself. Other children were playing tag, stepping on the spouts of the fountains so they’d spray way beyond where they were supposed to, or just sitting on the largest jet for the whole time we were there.

Kids of different ages were content entertaining themselves with plastic bags and cups, filling them up with water, and dumping them on each other or themselves. Almost every one of them had developed a specific way of interacting with the play area but toothy smiles and excited shrieks confirmed that they were all sufficiently having fun.

No pretense, no bridled inhibition, just fun.

It was then I decided that I couldn’t trust anyone who didn’t like being around kids. They’re our past and our future, and they’re not just the smallest of us, they’re the best of us.

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The West isn’t making babies like we used to. I don’t mean that euphemistically, either. Although, it is true that, based on polling data, we’re having less sex than ever ( despite the ubiquity of over-sexualized content in pop culture ) but that’s not the whole of the story.

We’re having less sex with much less intent to produce offspring. Birth rates in America and across the West, in general, have reached new lows post-pandemic. The Left will often cite climate change or, you know, this ‘f***** up’ world as reasons for not wanting to bear children. The less ideologically captured will talk about the costs, the difficulty in finding a spouse, or the prohibitive prices of the housing market all delaying the decision to reproduce.

A new Pew research study highlighting the vast differences in cultural issues between Trump and Biden supporters may suggest that the desire ( or lack thereof ) to have children may reside in a more fundamental judgement about what improves a society.

The poll shows the wide gulf between Dems and Republicans on a wide variety of issues; the contrasting opinions on gun ownership, gender studies, and the criminal justice system were predictable enough but it was the question surrounding marriage and families that gave the most telling ( and foreboding ) result.

The prompt is a simple one. Society is better off if people make marriage and having children a priority. Before I tell you the results, in what world does someone think that healthy societies are predicated upon anything but that?

If a civilization isn’t best served by prioritizing marriage and family-making, on what vocations should they spend time instead? Tending to their ever-multiplying houseplants? Haircuts? The mere suggestion of ‘fur babies’ will make me scream.

Surprising no one, the Trump crowd was much more in agreement with the statement than the pro-Biden group. What I didn’t see coming, however, was how low the numbers would be on both sides.

Prospective Trump voters responded in the affirmative at 59% of those who participated in the poll — we’ll get back to them. Likely Biden voters — there’s still time to change your mind! — confirmed the prompt at the abysmal rate of 19%. Oh my goodness, what are those people doing?

It’s great that the majority of Trump voters like families and kids but how is that number not 100%? Same goes with the pro-dementia crowd. What does a society look like when families aren’t made the priority? Off the top of my head, Sodom, Gomorrah, 5th century Rome, the Third Reich, and the USSR to name a few.

Ancient impotence.

The first three are examples where debauchery and hedonism ruled the day; the latter two examples are where the self was diminished in name not for God or the rest of man but for the all-consuming State. If you haven’t read that last sentence and immediately thought that the United States is shaping up to be a perfect chimera of the two worst kinds of examples history has to offer then give me a call. Brave New 1984, am I right?

A civilization not oriented to the creation of families and offspring is not just a morally bereft endeavor but one that is destined to fail because it lacks a sufficient breeding protocol and child-rearing regimen.

Marriage is meant for predominantly two things — having children and raising successful members of society. Not for me, of course. For me, it’s about having a life-long improv partner and an excuse to get out of any social event. I’m part of the problem, what do you want from me?

The West, with the notable exceptions of Israel and Hungary, almost all have birth rates well below replacement rates. This even includes Western-adjacent nations like South Korea and Japan — declination or delayed childbirth is an epidemic. If only there were a vaccine. Antinatalism has infiltrated both our lecture halls and bedrooms.

Social security will be a laughing stock relic from the past by the time my generation will be able to claim it. Unless our grandchildren radically reverse course, the labor force will be strikingly inadequate to support all of us free-loading geriatrics — but I don’t want to be a burden. Japan is already in the early stages of the crisis, do you remember when a Yale professor suggested that all of the elderly of Japan ought to kill themselves to unburden the younger generations?

We’ve all heard what nuclear winter will be like but we may see a reproductive winter before we elect anyone crazy enough to hit that red button. Empty playgrounds, fewer fun ice cream flavors, and a lot less unjustified, joyous laughter. Aside from things being less sticky and smudged, it sounds pretty awful. Lugubrious even, as my translated copy of War and Peace might say.

What we can glean from the low birth rates and similarly underperforming approval ratings of families and children is that if we don’t meet that dismal end through an inept slow extinction, we’ll turn everything to hell on earth by treating our most base predilections as rights and not the shameful quirks they are.

Like the last remaining captive pair of a nearly extinct species who choose to not copulate, we’re destined to go the way of the dodo. When that time comes, will there be a sympathetic species willing to take us into captivity, forcing us to reproduce to save the human race? Of course, you can only entertain the most plausible of ideas when you’re contemplating the extinction of humanity. That said, I can’t wait to meet my zookeeper.

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What lengths would you go to rescue your countrymen? What level of destruction would you justify to save your parent? How many lives would you sacrifice to save your son or your daughter?

The first question may elicit a different answer than the latter two, but maybe it shouldn’t.

An atheist would ask why it matters. A devout Buddhist would say that all lives are equal, why risk one for another? A philosopher might use logic to weigh the options. A man will do anything.

It seems that in our year of 2024, we’re rapidly forgetting the fundamental truths of what it means to be human. Thousands of years of sitting by campfires and bars and temples where vital information was transferred is being replaced by the instantaneous tingling of social media and subversive equivocation. Not everywhere, thankfully.

Despite the constant consternation it has received from the international community, Israel has remained steadfast in its goal of retrieving its hostages from the clutches of its enemy and uncompromisingly dispensing with their captors.

On Saturday, the IDF miraculously executed a daring mission that would save four hostages, three men and one woman, from Gaza. After over eight months in captivity in only-God-knows conditions, these four unfortunate souls were brought home.

The hostages, four out of the 240 that were taken on October 7th of last year, were being held in two apartment buildings in central Gaza. A small Israeli team entered both buildings simultaneously, dispatching the armed captors before Hamas’ retaliation began.

The operation had been in the planning stages for weeks. The IDF had been rehearsing the event, practicing in replicas of the apartment buildings, and planning for any number of variables. Hamas militants began firing bullets and grenades at the Israeli soldiers prompting the IDF’s air force to provide the necessary air support so that the team and the hostages could escape safely.

The hostages were kept in the central Gazan town of Nuseirat in a densely-populated civilian area to the surprise of absolutely no one. Gazan Health Officials (alternatively known as Hamas) have reported that the operation led to the deaths of over 210 Palestinians and injured about 200 others. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson, said that they were only aware of about 100 casualties.

In an oblivious statement bereft of any self-awareness or irony, Hamas called the assault “brutal and barbaric.” An official Israeli spokesperson replied, “You’re putting me on.”

Regardless of the actual amount of civilian death that was incurred during the operation, there seems to be a general sentiment amongst the media and the Left that the IDF acted recklessly or carelessly in freeing the hostages. In fact, in many of the headlines from the New York Times or the Washington Post, etc., the freeing of the hostages has played second fiddle to the shock horror of the civilian casualties of the incident.

The United Nations has been sure to suggest that both Israel’s and Hamas’ actions during the hostage rescue may have constituted war crimes. Let this be a lesson to all of you out there, when rescuing an innocent civilian from a terrorist organization, you can’t forget your manners. Pleases and thank yous are mandatory, a curtsy is a nice, optional, finishing touch.

This Post headline describes the operation as ‘bloodshed’ and in the sub-header immediately uses the Gaza Health Ministry’s (Hamas, remember) casualty numbers. Or how about this one from the Times? ‘Israel’s Euphoria Over Hostage Rescue May Be Fleeting’, the headline reads. ‘The operation conducted by Israel’s military to free four hostages resulted in a high death toll among Palestinians,’ the sub-header continued, ‘and has not resolved the challenges facing the Israeli government.’

Heaven forbid that we celebrate just one, unqualified victory.

As far as I can tell, the only deaths deliberately caused by the IDF were those of the captors — well-known (and armed) Palestinian citizens.

If, perhaps, the international left is concerned with the loss of innocent lives, they ought to consider having a word with Hamas. If Hamas were truly concerned with its citizenry, they wouldn’t be employing them in the harboring of captives from the October 7th invasion. Additionally, maybe it’s not the best idea to fire at the members of the rescue mission from crowded streets and residential areas.

Let’s pause for a moment for a hypothetical. If you and I both have water balloons and I throw one at you while you are taking back the baseball cards I stole from you earlier, but before you can retaliate, I make sure to stand close to my sister, who’s truly at fault when my sister gets a water balloon in the face? It could have been just you and me who were sopping wet, but I had the great idea of involving an innocent bystander in the carnage.

Which action should my sister blame? Your aim? Your willingness to respond? Or the fact that I could’ve stood anywhere else but chose to hide directly behind her? Or maybe she thinks I never should’ve stolen your Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card in the first place? That’s idiotic to suggest, obviously. If you didn’t want it stolen, you wouldn’t have shown it to me and left it safely tucked away in the sleeves of a locked binder.

Leaving the hypothetical aside for a moment, isn’t freeing the hostages a net good? Isn’t that what nation-states are meant to do? I know the United States doesn’t think so, we’ve left five American citizens to the predations of Hamas and whoever else may have them since October and only now are considering negotiating for them.

Where is the scorched earth? The cracked skulls? Where are our people?

A healthy society treats its citizens as a valuable, irreplaceable commodity. A government worth having is parentally protective over its citizens without being overbearing. ( Leave me alone, Mom! I’ll clean my room after I get back from my friend’s house! )

I guess none of us should be surprised by the reaction to the uncompromising heroism displayed by the IDF and the team on the ground in Gaza. A culture that doesn’t think prioritizing having children doesn’t improve society is one that doesn’t care about life in general. In a culture that espouses these beliefs, life is trivial, expendable, and mundane.

We should be aspiring in the opposite direction — a sentiment so aptly surmised by the words used to convey that the hostages had been recovered. When the hostages were secured, the IDF commandos in central Gaza, facing heavy fire from the enemy’s position, triumphantly reported, “We have the diamonds in our hands.”

To a better next week,

Cheers,

~FDA