First off, it’s that time of year: 2023 population data are pouring in. A surfeit of statistics surfaces somewhere every week. Nirvana for demography nerds! Parsing numbers is boring, but some startling stats merit mention. South Korea, with the world’s lowest fertility rate (0.78), broke its own record at 0.72. In Japan births fell 5.1 percent, marriages almost 6 percent. Seems Europe has more fifty-plus folks than preschoolers.
Know what really caught my attention this week? The adventures of Stephen J. Shaw, a Brit resident in Japan. He’s a documentary filmmaker, data scientist and you guessed it, demographer. He produced a fantastic documentary, Birthgap – Childless World. Part 1 is accessible here. Parts 2 and 3 are accessible via subscription.
The promo: Shocked by data on declining birth rates in Europe and Japan, Stephen embarked on a 24-country journey in order to understand the causes of this phenomenon. Along the way, he came face-to-face with the economic, social and individual consequences of childlessness and declining birth rates… [T]his thought-provoking documentary combines deeply personal stories with never-seen-before demographic data to reveal the surprising reality of what has been happening across the globe. Mr Shaw, a father of three, is a self-described “life-learner” who occasionally enrols in university courses….
Like so many data freaks, Shaw once believed Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb thesis, the notion that we’re reproducing too fast for the food supply and mass starvation is around the corner. But then he came face-to-face with the facts: no credible data supported Ehrlich. I had assumed before this project that the world’s population was growing exponentially out of control, almost that it didn’t matter what we did for the environment and because there are going to be so many people. I saw that the world’s population is destined to maximize quite quickly, and then quite quickly go down. Thus began the scholarly odyssey culminating in Birthgap – Childless World, a cinematic exposition about the birth dearth. Conclusion? There is a global pandemic (a real one) of unplanned childlessness. We teach people so much about biology in schools… We teach young people how to not get pregnant. We really don’t teach anything meaningful about the fertility window. Educrats love sex education, birth control and abortion rights; there is scant attention to the finiteness of human fertility. Birthgap provides a compassionate and much-needed platform for victims of unplanned, unintended childlessness. Their suffering has thus far been hidden from public view. That is changing thanks to Mr Shaw. People are now “coming out” about a sensitive personal issue critical to our survival….
Watch 3-minute trailer of Birthgap.
From Mercator.net
It’s refreshing to see a prominent unbeliever acknowledge truth, even when it’s not popular. Mr. Musk describes his religion as “one of curiosity.” Let’s pray his mind remains open to the Truth and that he comes to know our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth.
Traditional (man-woman only) Marriage and family needs to be taught to kids, and the preciousness of all life, from conception to natural death. And also, all Virtues,
particularly, chastity, charity, self-control, maturity, and the selfless work ethic, to make a good marriage, family, community and country. Faith in God and regular worship/church (or synagogue, etc.) attendance should be highly stressed. Destructive “hippie” and “gay” misfit “lifestyles,” music, drugs, pornography, obscene language, heterosexual promiscuity, gay sex acts, drag queens, and all that pertains to these destructive, misfit “lifestyles” should be heavily discouraged, and all media promoting such evils should be banned. Modernism — the destructions of the modern, dehumanizing, science/technology-out-of-control-based societies– and the selfish, Satanic Death Culture, are destroying all Life on the planet. Mankind is meant to live in harmony with and respect Nature, and worship God, Who is our wise, loving Creator. And mankind must be very careful and wise with science/technology, and all new concepts that mankind dreams up. Wise, competent leadership is very necessary, and good decisions, in harmony with God’s purposes. Bad ideas that are highly destructive should always be dumped in the wastebin of history, and forgotten. The 20th century saw far too many bad ideas that were basically immoral and destructive — and greatly dehumanizing!– yet were hailed as so-called “progress.”
To me the melancholiest sounds are a lone train whistle, and the sound of an empty tether ball chain clanging against its pole on an empty school ground after all the children have gone home. Why are so many men sent off to war? Where have all the children gone?
You painted a touching word picture. Thank you
When I was a small child, my mother took me to see a soldier get on a train. I think he was my father. My mother and he divorced soon after. That was the last time I saw him. Year later, she gave me his picture, and he and I looked alike. I found a few years ago that my father lived on, remarried and passed away.
My mother married a sailor soon after the divorce, and he, too, was scheduled to go abroad just as Japan was bombed, and World War II ended.
Twenty years ago, I worked on many playgrounds, so the tether ball reference explains itself.
Loved your two posts. Tetherball was a favorite game at recess, in school, long ago. Your poignant story would make a great novel or movie. Poignant, lone train whistles, a small child’s memory of her dad, a soldier, leaving for wartime duty, on a train (etc.) — the beginning of a great novel or movie. “Where have all the children gone?” Reminds me of the popular American folk song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” which was based on the Russian lyrics of a Russian Cossack folk song, referenced in the famous Russian novel, “And Quiet Flows the Don.” Many civilizations long before us, have endured much more than we have, even genocide. Now, man’s ruthless 20th century scientific inventions to control fertility, and promote selfish promiscuity and childless marital relations, have led to a warning of the possibility of man’s extinction, as a species– like the extinction of the dinosaurs! Sounds like a good possible story for the old TV show, The Twilight Zone.
Children still play tether ball here in California. Actually, it was called punching bag when I was in elementary school, and the “ball” was an inflated bag the shape of a humongous fig.
My story is far too common. It is the story of a lot of children and adults, both male and female. I have known many people who found train whistles lonely sounding, and one can only imagine their story.
You don’t wanna hear two train whistles.
Anne:
Like the ball, it seems the whole world has become untethered. Melancholy indeed. Thanks for your contributions here.
Thank you too for your compassion.
There are 8 billion people in the world.
The birth rate per woman is 2.3%.
Women are most fertile from age 16 to age 27.
Women are discouraged from having children when they should.
One man can impregnate or contribute to IVF with many different women, such as Musk.
Most men probably prefer the old fashioned way, though.
The Church insists on morality – one man, same woman, natural methods.
The countries where the birth rate is highest are the poorest countries in the world.
Children of IVF suffer. IVF is totally immoral. Plus, many lab-created embryos die, to get one successful pregnancy. Many embryos are frozen, and the majority may never have the chance to be delivered into the world as full-grown babies. Many end up being killed. About 2% of Americans today, were IVF children, artificially conceived– with many brothers and sisters left by their parents in the frozen embryos bank. This is extremely unethical, and immoral. God meant for babies to be created naturally, by two loving, married parents. All children deserve to be naturally created, and raised by two loving, married parents– one man and one woman. An infertile married couple should seek to adopt a child in need. IVF should be illegal, worldwide. Dr. John Rock, a Harvard-educated doctor, and devout, daily-Mass-attending Boston OB-GYN and infertility specialist, was on the team that developed the Birth Control Pill, and on another team, that worked on developing IVF. He was the lone Catholic among 15 Boston doctors, who signed a petition to urge the State of Massachusetts to repeal its law, prohibiting birth control, in 1931. Rock was bitterly disappointed when the Catholic Church refused to accept contraception, in the 1960s. After “Humanae Vitae” was issued by Pope St. Paul VI in 1968, Rock ave up on his Church, and stopped going to Mass. He never seemed to understand the unethical nature and grave immorality of his area of scientific research. God is the Divine Author of all Life, and we must always obey Him. When growing up, I recall hearing that all the time: “Only God can make a life, and only God can take a life.” Doctors took the Oath of Hippocrates. A doctor must never, never “play God.” All doctors, Catholic and Protestant, must obey God. We must obey God in all things in life. Very, very serious. In that era, sin and virtue were very clearly defined, and well-respected by all. Atheism and agnosticism was rare. Even those who greatly sinned, no matter what they believed about God, never lied, never dared pretend they had not sinned. So-called “moral relativism,” a total, blasphemous lie– was unheard of. Those who insisted on an immoral or criminal “lifestyle,” were clearly considered abnornal, terrible, unacceptable misfits, outside of society.
Although I never took the pill as a contraceptive, at first, I thought Pope Paul VI was wrong, but when I saw the gross immorality and diseases brought about by the pill, I knew the pope was right to have held the line. Can only wonder where John Rock is now? while the other Rock was canonized for his wise decision. Can only pray that John Rock, like Bernard Nathanson, “woke up” before he died.
France is destined for great evils, by becoming the first country in the world to enshrine so-called abortion rights in its constitution. The EU will likewise suffer great evils, if they decide to do the same thing. God is not on their side. The blood of the violently murdered children in their mothers’ wombs, cries out to God, their Father– and He will have His say. They must repent. And enshrine traditional marriage (man/woman only), motherhood and children in their constitutions.
Everyone knows the Muslim immigrants are going to take over France and much of Western Europe within a century.