DVD Review
“Never in history have we had economic prosperity accompanied by depopulation”
“There won’t be enough people to run the trains and pay the taxes.”
“Now we have forty years of evidence that the deterioration of marriage, the encouragement of sexuality outside of marriage is just not good for society, nor the children, nor men.”
“On every measure ever measured by the social sciences, the intact married family is the strongest on outcome on every measure measured.”
I have just viewed the Demographic Winter DVD. The quotes above, all from highly qualified academic observers including a Nobel laureate, all of which you can hear for yourself by watching the trailer on the website, are soberingly supported by the whole presentation. It would appear that world depopulation trends are taking us toward difficult times.
“There’s not much quibble, there’s not much controversy, among people in the know.”
World population growth is leveling off. We are not birthing enough children to replace ourselves as we age and die. The health revolution hides this trend for now: increased lifespans mean that total population is not falling yet. It is aging instead. The social and economic results appear dangerous if not catastrophic.
“More imminent than global warming, and at least as severe.”
The NY Times Magazine, in an article published Sunday, concurs that there is a significant problem growing here.
Why is this happening? The researchers and producers involved in this film identify five primary factors:
- Inaccurate assumptions, especially in regard to the “population bomb” (Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book)
- Prosperity
- Women working
- The sexual revolution
- The divorce revolution
It almost looks like a list drawn from a Christian family foundation’s talking points (though prosperity in itself is hardly ever considered an evil, it is the self-focus that can often accompany it that contributes to this problem). Phil Longman, one of the researchers most featured in the film (who said “there’s not much quibble…”), emphasizes that he is not speaking from a faith perspective but a research perspective. Others insist that the researchers most in touch with the actual data on social and family trends are in near-total agreement that the family matters.
Could it be that James Dobson and Dennis Rainey have been right all along?
Order the DVD and decide for yourself.
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Possibly related posts (automatically generated):
I watched the trailer for the DVD months ago and have thought about it often, wondering how big the cause for concern really is. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that less and less children to support more and more adults equals a growing problem. A society can’t sustain that pattern forever, even with advances in technology.
I have 4 children so I’d like to think I’ve done my part.
It could be that we will see the consequences in Europe and, especially in China first where there has been drastic curtailing of birth rates. They thought in China that they would solve the problem of poverty with enforced family limitation and now will reap the reverse.
Too many people? Isn’t that far worse than claiming there are too many flowers? Anyway, this whole overpopulation myth reminds me of an exchange in the movie Amadeus:
Emperor Joseph II: “Your work is ingenious. It’s quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that’s all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.”
Mozart: “Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?”
Transhumanists, secular humanists, moral relativists, abortion supporters and providers, brights, euthanasia promoters, environmental extremists (is there any other kind?), etc. are all trying to “cut a few” of those “inconvenient” human beings so that the remaining powerful ones can have more “stuff” (with apologize to George Carline, RIP). Like I’ve said before: Those who were for slavery were free. Those who are for abortion were born. That’s how oppression works. And, those who would reduce the human population will not volunteer themselves… except these folks: http://www.vhemt.org/.
What if the solutions were clear to academia… but weren’t politcally correct?
Surely not!
One of the main points in the Times article is that educated women who have access to good jobs and birth control won’t have children unless the society around them forces their husbands to share house- and baby-work with their wives.
The U.S. does a better job of this than do European and Asian cultures. To a degree greater here than there, men are expected to help out. I certainly did – I’d bet that I changed more diapers than my wife (and from 1999 to 2004, we always had at least one child in diapers).