I remember dropping my middle son off at daycare at 2yrs old and heading to college classes. It broke my heart to leave him in the care of strangers. I cried as I drove away from his daycare, everyday for weeks. Friends and family always told me this is just the way it is...just be tough. Such bullshit. Leaving your child isn’t natural and if it doesn’t bother a woman then idk what kind of mother she is.
Working my way through college with 2 kids, then heading to work after graduation only to realize quality child care is so expensive it takes most of my paycheck so why the hell am I even doing this?!? It doesn’t make sense!!
Eventually I gave up trying to do what society demands of women: to work and raise kids at the same time. I know many women somehow do it, but splitting my focus between work and kids just felt wrong and I sucked at it. I ended up doing a half assed job at work and as a mother/wife bc I was spread too thin.
Now I work from home part time and homeschool my 2 school aged kids. It’s hard but I finally feel like I am a success, if only at being a good mom/wife, but that’s enough for me.
I lost a lot of years following societies rules. But no more. F*** work, my family is more important. Kids will be grown soon and then I can go to work. I am very grateful I have a loving and supportive husband, I know many mothers don’t. I couldn’t be a good mother without his love and support. And I strive to be a good wife to him in return ❤️
Sorry for the long rant lol, but women lacking the support needed to grow families hits close to home. Until women in western countries have some kind of support system that makes having families feasible, birth rates won’t increase.
Hmmm, a thought just popped in my mind reading this: we need to locate more of our high IQ jobs in liveable small towns. The promise of the Internet should be not for telecommuting, but making the commutes small, or even bikable.
Back when I was in high school in a very rural county, there were busses that took people on hour commutes to a government research lab. I could see setting up a high tech office in my old home town to steal some of those knowledge workers from Uncle Sam and let people live close to their roots.
There are liveable rural communities scattered all over the country in a similar situation. And with today's high speed rural Internet, a company could scatter itself to mutiple such nodes, with each having a conference room similar to Doctor Cocteau in "Demolition Man."
==
As for those aging boomers: let them provide childcare -- for their own grandchildren.
I am so glad to see someone taking this subject on. As a woman who chose to stay home with her kid I have been shocked at the treatment I received at times and how so many people, including my spouse pressured me to get back to work way too soon. Young kids NEED their moms, not some stranger caregiver.
I had to put my foot down and spell it out why I wanted to be at home doing all the ‘menial’ tasks of running a household because kids need us to be truly present, to be not just physically but emotionally available, especially teens. I can’t begin to tell you the number if times my kid shared something with me that was bothering them or a funny story and she was able to do that because I was truly present.
I have been determined to give my daughter what I did not have and I value relationships way more than money or status. Its just shocking to me how many people are so dismissive of stay at home moms, the media does not help at all either.
Its like the sacred love of the family is being swallowed up by the worship of money.
I have often commented to a close friend that we live in a society more misogynist now than 30 years ago.
When is the earliest example of elites promoting the idea that there are too many humans?
Was it the 1990’s and the overpopulation movement in the academy? No. Was it the 1960’s and the feminist movement? No. Was it the eugenics movement in the 1920’s? No. Was it the Malthusians in the early 1800’? No. In fact, it goes all the way back to Ancient Sumer, and before that to the Antediluvian civilization.
Never did I think I would live to see a civilization with all its warts volunteer to commit collective suicide in slow motion.
I was born in 1960. White collar, educated, when I was young I had 5 seperate women fall pregnant to me whilst in relationship with me. All also white & educated, professionals. So they all aborted, weren't ready, financial, it wasn't the "right time". I begged, the last one... So last century. So I never had a kid...live. We still don't call it murder but I feel like a serial killer now. A rich, lonely serial killer. 😶
Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." I always thought he was speaking figuratively about the futility of long-term planning, but I guess he was referring to the ruling class's actual long term plan: in the long run, they plan for us all to be dead.
John Carter, you are a river to your people. So, that said, a few observations from me.
First of all, are you familiar with the books of John Michael Greer? He's an American (and a Druid, which may or may not have any bearing on his views, I don't know) and he's Mr. Peak Oil. He claims that the Western world is in the throes of something he calls 'catabolic collapse' which he describes as a sort of staggered, slow-motion decline over a period of years characterised by a long series of discrete 'mini-collapses' until the civilisation pretty much disappears. According to him, this is what happened to Rome.
According to Greer catabolic collapse is what happens when the cost of maintaining a civilisation outstrips the wealth it produces. There follows, then, an inevitable shedding of some of the most expensive parts so that the civilisation can continue to operate, albeit at a lower level. Then it happens again and again and again until once-mighty Rome becomes a sheep pasture.
The reason I raise this is because, again according to Greer, one of the hallmarks of a catabolic collapse is a sustained decline in fertility due to the fact that people simply cannot afford the cost of children.
Second point: many historians have observed that nations or societies under critical stress often manifest autophagia in response. In past eras this has led to maniacal bouts of human sacrifice. Maybe our modern version of this is transgenderism and, given that it is most common among white boys, that would make a certain degree of sense. After all, it is white boys who have now been relegated to the bottom of the social pyramid with nothing to look forward to in the "brown and female" future.
LOL Thailand is not comprised entirely of ladyboys I am not one and my husband does not want to be one either, but it is the most gay friendly country in Asia and has been a hotbed for especially male to female transition surgery for decades, before that was even a thing. I've known two (one American, one Thai) who underwent it they were late 20's early 30's at the time. I have no opinion on their choice there as they were certainly of an age in which such body modification was, well, up to them. Pushing it on children is sheer lunacy though IMHO.
This was an excellent essay and I will be sharing it shortly. Something I can say as a mother is that motherhood is not widely respected and that the higher you climb the socioeconomic ladder the less it is. This is especially true in Western countries as in Thailand there is much more deference and respect of mothers (and the elderly also). There was a breaking of a centuries old social contract that happened I think starting with the sexuaal revolution: from a proto Christian monogamous viewpoint it goes like this: for a man, marriage is the sacrifice. He is taking his availability off the market and pouring his resources into his wife and family. For the woman, meanwhile, childbirth is the sacrifice. She risks her body and even her life, may never quite look the same afterwards and has now substantially lowered her value to any other future prospects. The contract got broke both ways...
I see a different sort of Brave New World forming globally with humans born of humans unmolested by technology few and far apart. Unlike Huxley's dystopia the odds are the ruling caste only is human. I expect by 2050 this Huxley clone world (if ABC warfare in earnest does not arise) will be capable of creation even with few humans living.
May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by John Carter
You left out how Big pHarma is messing people up with drugs and vaccines. I'm not just referring to "gender reassignments." Lots of women are on SSRIs and urge others "not to be ashamed" to take this damaging, addictive crap that messes people up in so many ways, rendering them unfit to have families. It's no longer considered a shameful thing to be bipolar or depressed. Youngsters brag about it on Tiktok. Gives them an excuse to behave badly I guess.
You may say the scarring caused by various venereal diseases is probably not significant, but this tells me you have never been to, say, Allendale, SC. As a matter of fact, just about all the low country towns in SC, as well as those in GA and I presume the rest of the south have this problem.
Thirty eight years of pharmacy, and hundreds of thousands (millions?) of prescriptions of communicable disease antibiotics has got to have some effect. Besides the abortions.
And the thought that you shouldn't take them with alcohol, which is true for metronidazole (chlamydia), didn't help. This led to compliance all over the board, frequently resulting in a situation where the affected guy or girl said I still have these at home!
I stayed home ALWAYS as we raised 7 kids in our house, but I did make some income from home as a writer and editor. Now as the youngest is 20, I am still home (will never work outside), but have ramped up my work. We sacrificed, yes, but it was so very worth it.
Hi John, another amazing article, and thank you so much for saying you love mothers. That's so nice to hear it made me cry. There may be more mother's if more people shared the sentiment.
Which is one of the main reasons, I think, for the "fertility" decline. The value system has changed so much. Call it culture, tradition, conservativism or religion - just values: women who want kids are sneered upon, and deemed somehow lesser. Men avoid them like plague.
Being a mother is at the bottom of the success ladder. Education, career, money, fame... Say your wife is stay at home mom with three kids and your colleagues will burst out laughing.
I'm juggling high responsibility job and two little ones, and as soon as my home loan is paid for, I'm quitting and consulting from home, people's opinions be damned.
For those real men out there, who love mothers, thank you and I love you back ♥️
When you live in the outside world, you can observe over time that various populations rise & fall in waves. Eg, some years the battle against mice is overwhelming, the supply endless. Other years, they seem to have vanished. Same with black flies, mosquitos, ticks, a pasture of weeds versus grass & clover, and so on.
The tide comes in, the tide recedes.
There is no one species that gets to dominate forever.
Im excited to see what you have to say in part 2 because I truly feel like the devaluing of the mother role in general has been a big part of why women aren't choosing to walk the path. Plus so many people think of humans as a stain on the planet, like we destroy everything. The environmental movement, as well as many activist movements these days, are basically anti-human.
We live in a society in the west where women want to celebrate themselves as dog moms on Mother's Day as if that is even close to the level of sacrifice it takes to be a true Mother. And it's the knowing of sacrifice that keeps a lot of people away from having kids. As a culture we are so hyper focused on our own individual lives we dont understand the immense value in parenting.
I hope to be someone who helps rewrite that story and helps people see the joy in having kids. It's a ton of work and sometimes makes a person question their sanity, but children are such a gift and should be seen as the most valuable part of humanity.
Man, reading this made me cry.
I remember dropping my middle son off at daycare at 2yrs old and heading to college classes. It broke my heart to leave him in the care of strangers. I cried as I drove away from his daycare, everyday for weeks. Friends and family always told me this is just the way it is...just be tough. Such bullshit. Leaving your child isn’t natural and if it doesn’t bother a woman then idk what kind of mother she is.
Working my way through college with 2 kids, then heading to work after graduation only to realize quality child care is so expensive it takes most of my paycheck so why the hell am I even doing this?!? It doesn’t make sense!!
Eventually I gave up trying to do what society demands of women: to work and raise kids at the same time. I know many women somehow do it, but splitting my focus between work and kids just felt wrong and I sucked at it. I ended up doing a half assed job at work and as a mother/wife bc I was spread too thin.
Now I work from home part time and homeschool my 2 school aged kids. It’s hard but I finally feel like I am a success, if only at being a good mom/wife, but that’s enough for me.
I lost a lot of years following societies rules. But no more. F*** work, my family is more important. Kids will be grown soon and then I can go to work. I am very grateful I have a loving and supportive husband, I know many mothers don’t. I couldn’t be a good mother without his love and support. And I strive to be a good wife to him in return ❤️
Sorry for the long rant lol, but women lacking the support needed to grow families hits close to home. Until women in western countries have some kind of support system that makes having families feasible, birth rates won’t increase.
Hmmm, a thought just popped in my mind reading this: we need to locate more of our high IQ jobs in liveable small towns. The promise of the Internet should be not for telecommuting, but making the commutes small, or even bikable.
Back when I was in high school in a very rural county, there were busses that took people on hour commutes to a government research lab. I could see setting up a high tech office in my old home town to steal some of those knowledge workers from Uncle Sam and let people live close to their roots.
There are liveable rural communities scattered all over the country in a similar situation. And with today's high speed rural Internet, a company could scatter itself to mutiple such nodes, with each having a conference room similar to Doctor Cocteau in "Demolition Man."
==
As for those aging boomers: let them provide childcare -- for their own grandchildren.
I am so glad to see someone taking this subject on. As a woman who chose to stay home with her kid I have been shocked at the treatment I received at times and how so many people, including my spouse pressured me to get back to work way too soon. Young kids NEED their moms, not some stranger caregiver.
I had to put my foot down and spell it out why I wanted to be at home doing all the ‘menial’ tasks of running a household because kids need us to be truly present, to be not just physically but emotionally available, especially teens. I can’t begin to tell you the number if times my kid shared something with me that was bothering them or a funny story and she was able to do that because I was truly present.
I have been determined to give my daughter what I did not have and I value relationships way more than money or status. Its just shocking to me how many people are so dismissive of stay at home moms, the media does not help at all either.
Its like the sacred love of the family is being swallowed up by the worship of money.
I have often commented to a close friend that we live in a society more misogynist now than 30 years ago.
When is the earliest example of elites promoting the idea that there are too many humans?
Was it the 1990’s and the overpopulation movement in the academy? No. Was it the 1960’s and the feminist movement? No. Was it the eugenics movement in the 1920’s? No. Was it the Malthusians in the early 1800’? No. In fact, it goes all the way back to Ancient Sumer, and before that to the Antediluvian civilization.
Never did I think I would live to see a civilization with all its warts volunteer to commit collective suicide in slow motion.
I was born in 1960. White collar, educated, when I was young I had 5 seperate women fall pregnant to me whilst in relationship with me. All also white & educated, professionals. So they all aborted, weren't ready, financial, it wasn't the "right time". I begged, the last one... So last century. So I never had a kid...live. We still don't call it murder but I feel like a serial killer now. A rich, lonely serial killer. 😶
Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." I always thought he was speaking figuratively about the futility of long-term planning, but I guess he was referring to the ruling class's actual long term plan: in the long run, they plan for us all to be dead.
I'm only at the Tokyo part. Remember the anarchy following the 2011 disaster that hit Japan? Me neither.
I often ask certain activist to explain this. They get mad.
John Carter, you are a river to your people. So, that said, a few observations from me.
First of all, are you familiar with the books of John Michael Greer? He's an American (and a Druid, which may or may not have any bearing on his views, I don't know) and he's Mr. Peak Oil. He claims that the Western world is in the throes of something he calls 'catabolic collapse' which he describes as a sort of staggered, slow-motion decline over a period of years characterised by a long series of discrete 'mini-collapses' until the civilisation pretty much disappears. According to him, this is what happened to Rome.
According to Greer catabolic collapse is what happens when the cost of maintaining a civilisation outstrips the wealth it produces. There follows, then, an inevitable shedding of some of the most expensive parts so that the civilisation can continue to operate, albeit at a lower level. Then it happens again and again and again until once-mighty Rome becomes a sheep pasture.
The reason I raise this is because, again according to Greer, one of the hallmarks of a catabolic collapse is a sustained decline in fertility due to the fact that people simply cannot afford the cost of children.
Second point: many historians have observed that nations or societies under critical stress often manifest autophagia in response. In past eras this has led to maniacal bouts of human sacrifice. Maybe our modern version of this is transgenderism and, given that it is most common among white boys, that would make a certain degree of sense. After all, it is white boys who have now been relegated to the bottom of the social pyramid with nothing to look forward to in the "brown and female" future.
LOL Thailand is not comprised entirely of ladyboys I am not one and my husband does not want to be one either, but it is the most gay friendly country in Asia and has been a hotbed for especially male to female transition surgery for decades, before that was even a thing. I've known two (one American, one Thai) who underwent it they were late 20's early 30's at the time. I have no opinion on their choice there as they were certainly of an age in which such body modification was, well, up to them. Pushing it on children is sheer lunacy though IMHO.
This was an excellent essay and I will be sharing it shortly. Something I can say as a mother is that motherhood is not widely respected and that the higher you climb the socioeconomic ladder the less it is. This is especially true in Western countries as in Thailand there is much more deference and respect of mothers (and the elderly also). There was a breaking of a centuries old social contract that happened I think starting with the sexuaal revolution: from a proto Christian monogamous viewpoint it goes like this: for a man, marriage is the sacrifice. He is taking his availability off the market and pouring his resources into his wife and family. For the woman, meanwhile, childbirth is the sacrifice. She risks her body and even her life, may never quite look the same afterwards and has now substantially lowered her value to any other future prospects. The contract got broke both ways...
I see a different sort of Brave New World forming globally with humans born of humans unmolested by technology few and far apart. Unlike Huxley's dystopia the odds are the ruling caste only is human. I expect by 2050 this Huxley clone world (if ABC warfare in earnest does not arise) will be capable of creation even with few humans living.
You left out how Big pHarma is messing people up with drugs and vaccines. I'm not just referring to "gender reassignments." Lots of women are on SSRIs and urge others "not to be ashamed" to take this damaging, addictive crap that messes people up in so many ways, rendering them unfit to have families. It's no longer considered a shameful thing to be bipolar or depressed. Youngsters brag about it on Tiktok. Gives them an excuse to behave badly I guess.
You may say the scarring caused by various venereal diseases is probably not significant, but this tells me you have never been to, say, Allendale, SC. As a matter of fact, just about all the low country towns in SC, as well as those in GA and I presume the rest of the south have this problem.
Thirty eight years of pharmacy, and hundreds of thousands (millions?) of prescriptions of communicable disease antibiotics has got to have some effect. Besides the abortions.
And the thought that you shouldn't take them with alcohol, which is true for metronidazole (chlamydia), didn't help. This led to compliance all over the board, frequently resulting in a situation where the affected guy or girl said I still have these at home!
I stayed home ALWAYS as we raised 7 kids in our house, but I did make some income from home as a writer and editor. Now as the youngest is 20, I am still home (will never work outside), but have ramped up my work. We sacrificed, yes, but it was so very worth it.
Hi John, another amazing article, and thank you so much for saying you love mothers. That's so nice to hear it made me cry. There may be more mother's if more people shared the sentiment.
Which is one of the main reasons, I think, for the "fertility" decline. The value system has changed so much. Call it culture, tradition, conservativism or religion - just values: women who want kids are sneered upon, and deemed somehow lesser. Men avoid them like plague.
Being a mother is at the bottom of the success ladder. Education, career, money, fame... Say your wife is stay at home mom with three kids and your colleagues will burst out laughing.
I'm juggling high responsibility job and two little ones, and as soon as my home loan is paid for, I'm quitting and consulting from home, people's opinions be damned.
For those real men out there, who love mothers, thank you and I love you back ♥️
When you live in the outside world, you can observe over time that various populations rise & fall in waves. Eg, some years the battle against mice is overwhelming, the supply endless. Other years, they seem to have vanished. Same with black flies, mosquitos, ticks, a pasture of weeds versus grass & clover, and so on.
The tide comes in, the tide recedes.
There is no one species that gets to dominate forever.
Nature bats last.
Im excited to see what you have to say in part 2 because I truly feel like the devaluing of the mother role in general has been a big part of why women aren't choosing to walk the path. Plus so many people think of humans as a stain on the planet, like we destroy everything. The environmental movement, as well as many activist movements these days, are basically anti-human.
We live in a society in the west where women want to celebrate themselves as dog moms on Mother's Day as if that is even close to the level of sacrifice it takes to be a true Mother. And it's the knowing of sacrifice that keeps a lot of people away from having kids. As a culture we are so hyper focused on our own individual lives we dont understand the immense value in parenting.
I hope to be someone who helps rewrite that story and helps people see the joy in having kids. It's a ton of work and sometimes makes a person question their sanity, but children are such a gift and should be seen as the most valuable part of humanity.