P.D. James’ detective novels, featuring Inspector Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, are every bit as gripping as those penned by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edith Pargeter (who wrote as “Ellis Peters” when creating the Cadfael Chronicles), and Ann Cleeves.
Yet my favorite work by the woman who was honored with a life peerage and died in 2014 as Baroness James of Holland Park is her dystopian look into a world of global infertility, The Children of Men. Forget the movie claiming to be based on the novel and read the book—the first sentence of which rather gets one’s attention:
Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years, two months and twelve days.
I won’t spoil the story by going into details of the world without children that P.D. James limns. Suffice it to say that elements of it came to mind last month during two and a half weeks of work in Rome.
Paris may call itself the “City of Light,” but Rome in the run-up to Christmas is just as spectacularly illuminated: from the small streets of the Borgo district to the park surrounding Castel Sant’Angelo to the glamorous shopping area around Via Condotti and the Spanish Steps. Amidst all that light, however, there were shadows: shadows involving the relative childlessness of a country with a birth rate far, far below replacement level. And just as in P.D. James’ novel (in which childlessness is caused by inexplicable, global male infertility), a world without a lot of children leads to bizarre adult behaviors.
Pet stores now seem far more evident in Rome. Take, for example, myfamily, which has created a “pet lifestyle universe” in Rome’s Termini railway station. And what is on offer in myfamily? How about pricey sweaters and parkas for… chihuahuas and other micro-dogs? For myfamily is home to a “pet lifestyle brand,” featuring “meticulously crafted” accessories for dogs and cats, including “over 700 distinctive pet tag designs, customizable with in-store engraving in less than two minutes.”
“Family” has, evidently, acquired new — and some would say, ominous — connotations in a world of infertility. Unlike P.D. James’s fictional dystopia, however, today’s Western crisis of childlessness is not inexplicable. It is entirely explicable by the deliberate decision of young couples not to have children. Childlessness today is self-induced.
Then there were the experiences shared with me by an academic friend on sabbatical in Rome, where he had spent his teenage years. In addition to his research, my friend had used the past several months to catch up with classmates from his old liceo, or Italian classical high school. Like my friend, these were now professionals with families. And what they described as common practices in their upper-middle-class neighborhoods certainly got their old classmate’s attention — and mine, when he repeated the stories to me.
For example: What is the most common First Holy Communion gift? An iPhone.
For example: What is the #1 gift for girls on their 18th birthday? Plastic surgery.
My friend’s liceo compatriots also spoke of young people withdrawing from human society into a world of pseudo-relationships on the Internet. Of young people terrified by any form of difficulty. Of women unable to find husbands and men confused about what it means to be an adult man. Even more disturbing was the lethargy exhibited by the Roman parish pastor, who had to be cajoled by irate parents into providing a program of pre-Confirmation instructions for the young people who wanted to receive the sacrament.
To be sure, this is anecdotal evidence. And it’s certainly the case that similar phenomena—and worse—can be found around the so-called developed world. For example, I never heard anything in Italy in a league with “Ami-chan,” the AI-powered “electronic granddaughter doll” (read: robot) available in Japan since 2021, which has a 1,600-word vocabulary, sings nursery rhymes, and interacts with elderly Japanese who have no grandchildren of their own.
In the face of these unmistakable signs of cultural, even civilizational, decay, the Church has its work cut out for it. That is why the renaissance of campus ministries in the United States and the tremendous growth of young adult ministries like the Thomistic Institute, the Leonine Forum, and FOCUS are signs of hope. These initiatives provide models that the Church in the United States can share with the Church in Europe, Latin America, the ANZAC countries, and East Asia.
Before it’s too late.
(George Weigel’s column ‘The Catholic Difference’ is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)
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I’m waiting for SOMEONE to name the elephant in this room.
Interesting “blast from the past” article which quickly disappeared but not before I got the title. Mary Eberstadt: Contraception and its consequences not just a “Catholic thing”. Follow-up critique by Carl Olson of a Conrad Black article. Surprising quote from Joyce Meyers, of all people.
2013. Some of us are slow learners.
You mean this article?
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/03/22/mary-ebertstadt-contraception-and-its-consequences-not-just-a-catholic-thing/
As much as I have railed against contraception, I don’t think it is a cause/motivation as much as it is a means.
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Our civilization has gotten really very good at off-loading basic family functions (jobs) to the community at large. Parents don’t need to look after their own children for much of the day (day care/preschools then K-12 schools do this now), and adult day cares/nursing homes/social security means children don’t need to tend to elderly parents nearly as much as they did 100 years ago (granted, the elderly parents tended to die earlier).
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Back in 2007, Oskari Juurikkala wrote a thought provoking article on Social Security and the current demographic collapse. https://mises.org/mises-daily/making-kids-worthless-social-securitys-contribution-fertility-crisis
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No one shows up for a job that isn’t there. If the primary job of modern day parenthood is to be a taxi-driver who delivers the children to some other location and person to raise, (and then an inn keeper at night where the children sleep), little wonder folks decide–even if subconsciously–that isn’t the job for them.
I love dogs & chihuahuas can actually be fierce little watchdogs. But it’s become ridiculous. The last time I went to the doctor it cost me $35. The last time I took my old dog, RIP, to the vet for treatment it was over $200. My antibiotics cost $10. The dog’s medication cost 6-7 times that.
Time for one more trip to the vet, this one being the last?
I tried once again to find the source of a quotation I posted here years ago. My search:
Google search terms: the chief cultural achievement of the Catholic Church is to shield her members from the passing parade of imbecility
AI Overview begins:
The phrase “the chief cultural achievement of the Catholic Church is to shield her members from the passing parade of imbecility” is often cited in discussions about the role of Catholic tradition in providing a timeless, moral, and intellectual framework that contrasts with, or protects against, ephemeral or misguided social trends (the “passing parade of imbecility”).
• Context: The quote appeared in the comments section of a 2019 Catholic World Report article.
• Discussion: Commenters have suggested it might be a sentiment from writers like Carl E. Olson or simply a summary of a traditional, counter-cultural, or conservative Catholic perspective.
• Themes: It aligns with, but does not definitively match, sentiments regarding the Church as a bulwark against “relativism” or the “dictatorship of relativism” often cited in traditionalist or conservative Catholic discourse.
• Alternative phrasing: Similar, though distinct, quotes in literature include references to “three generations of imbeciles are enough” from the 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case.
The quote expresses a, largely traditionalist, view of the Church as an institution that preserves sanity and enduring truth in a world prone to fleeting, irrational ideas.
It is cheaper for me to have my cats’ medical needs taken care of than my own (or my children’s) by a long way, and they go in for appointments frequently as they are quite elderly (17 and 19 years).
I have medical insurance on the children and me, but not on my animals.
Thank you, George.
Spot on. A disastrous fertility trend leading to the Islamization of Europe and a future actuarial disaster for Social Security/Medicare in the U.S.
Hoping and praying that faithful Catholic families Wii buck this trend.
Katy Groenig above (4:19 a.m.) – Yes, that is the article and it has a reference to the Olson article critiquing Conrad Black (who incidently quotes the generally assumed belief that contraception is the antidote to abortion).
Mrs. Hess (4:46 a.m.) – I hadn’t really thought about these points in relation to contraception but they merit reflection.
I didn’t mention it, but it is interesting to note that estimates of the Japanese failure to, um, engage in certain activities are fairly high:
“According to a national survey released in 2022, a shocking 35% of women and 40% of men aged 18–34 in Japan have “zero dating experience.” In addition, a University of Tokyo survey found that the virginity rate (defined as “no sexual experience”) among Japanese men in their 20s was as high as 43%. The rate of American men for the same generation is about 10%, and I realized: I was living in a kind of ‘super-virgin’ nation.”
https://medium.com/japonica-publication/japans-43-virginity-rate-and-fading-trust-a77d591d4212
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This is just one article, but many others I have seen, as well as Youtube videos, tell a similar tale: a serious lack of “fun” (unless it is “fun” with p0rn manga). Even here in the States, Gen Z is actually less active than previous generations. https://ifstudies.org/in-the-news/adults-are-having-less-sex-than-ever-with-gen-z-seeing-the-steepest-decline-study
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This isn’t just a contraception problem. Something else is going on. I firmly believe social safety programs and “other schooling” (non-homeschooling K-8) are a large part of what ails us as a civilization. Parenting/family isn’t purely instinctive. If we don’t learn how to do it and see examples of it routinely–and a lot of us didn’t/don’t–we are much more likely to find an office job (or even an oil rig job) and after dinner drinks more entertaining.
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At least that’s my experience/thoughts.
Mrs. Hess (5:19 p.m.) – I agree that we are generally losing the skills and attitudes required for parenting/family life.
We’ve had how many generations now of so-called sex education that is largely contraception information/ propaganda? A person could be forgiven for concluding that the purpose of sex is to avoid conception. Then all of a sudden at a certain age you are supposed to shift gears and welcome the hitherto studiously-avoided bunch of cells. And not only welcome it but know what to do with it.
Lord help us.