Submitting to reality

[JimG]

The fundamental task of each generation is to produce the next generation, so that our people will continue. That’s not a religious belief; that’s a proposition that is, or ought to be, obvious to anyone who lifts his or her head up out of the trough long enough to see past their own appetites. If we, both individually and collectively, lose our ability to recognize that, and fail to create social structures and disciplines that make producing the next generation possible, then we will have committed suicide.

Submitting To Reality - The American Conservative

 

[Viki63]

The good news is, that the people having children are the ones most likely to be conservative, i.e. people who still have the use of their common sense. Those who renounce family and children will be gone by the next generation. Sadly, because many of them are my relatives.

 

[Freddy]

If I say one of my kids wants to be a builder or a plumber or a welder and the other wants to be a dancer or a nurse or a florist then the vast majority of people will think the first a boy and the second a girl.

We are, very slowly indeed, moving away from that. We are moving away from automatically using ‘he’ when referring to a generic person. We are moving very slowly away from the fact that it makes sense for a woman who has a well paying job to maintain that job whilst her partner spends more time looking after the children.

The opposition to this is couched in different ways to different degrees by different people. But there is opposition to this. I’m not sure how to explain to such people that they are being left behind.

 

[NevermoreLenore]

conservative, i.e. people who still have the use of their common sense.

Erm…
One does not need to be “conservative” to have common sense nor to be good parents. There are conservatives who lack common sense. There are liberals who lack common sense. There are also conservatives AND liberals who are amazing parents.

Why is EVERYTHING us vs them? I can’t believe how entrenched people are in ideation that they instantly label someone who doesn’t agree wholeheartedly with them on any topic as a liberal, and vice versa. ‘Pfttt, he doesn’t like sushi…dumb conservative’ and ‘Pfttt, she loves dogs…dumb liberals’.

 

[Peeps]

We are moving very slowly away from the fact that it makes sense for a woman who has a well paying job to maintain that job whilst her partner spends more time looking after the children.

Speaking as a very practical woman–

–if a woman decides that she want to nurse (breastfeed) her children, it’s not always an easy thing to do while working full-time.

Nowadays, women have pumps that supposedly work well, and they are allowed to leave work several times a day and sit in a dark room by themselves to pump breastmilk. Since I work in a hospital lab, most of my co-workers are women, and many of them have done this–and it’s not easy.

They don’t get to sit with the rest of us and eat their lunch–they have to leave. And if the workload is heavy, they can’t delay their pumping for very long to help–the success of breastfeeding can be helped by consistency.

And this goes on for several months.

I can’t even imagine how a woman working on a construction site, or as a welder on the high crane, is able to do this. I suppose they make it happen.

I can’t help but think that many women give up on breastfeeding after being back at work for a few weeks and seeing her baby lose interest in the breast when he/she is offered a bottle by his/her daddy.

I loved breastfeeding, but I was never able to pump. My first daughter went happily back and forth between breast and bottle, but my second daughter absolutely would NOT take a bottle–we actually tried withholding the breast from her for most of a day, and she STILL would not take a bottle, but just screamed. So for 11 months, five times a day (all during the daylight hours, thank goodness), I breastfed her for a half-hour. It was a precious time for both of us–and I am glad that I had QUIT MY JOB before she was born when I realized that I was NOT Superwoman and could not possibly work AND take care of a newborn baby and her toddler sister.

Sometimes “moving away” from past stereotypes does not match
the reality of raising children

 

[JimG]

We are moving away from automatically using ‘he’ when referring to a generic person.

In English the generic “he” is appropriate when referring to a person of unknown or indeterminate gender. The only substitute I have seen is to use “they” as a generic pronoun, but it is awkward and grammatically incorrect when using it as a generic pronoun in the singular.

 

[Pattylt]

Freddy:

We are moving away from automatically using ‘he’ when referring to a generic person.

In English the generic “he” is appropriate when referring to a person of unknown or indeterminate gender. The only substitute I have seen is to use “they” as a generic pronoun, but it is awkward and grammatically incorrect when using it as a generic pronoun in the singular.

It’s a good thing that English is one of the most malleable languages! Any noun, verb, pronoun, adverb, etc…is adaptable to change and it has happened thousands of times before. Using they as a singular pronoun will only sound funny for a limited period of time. It then becomes normalized and the next generation will think it sounds funny to NOT use they as a singular non gender specific noun.

Yay, English!

 

[Freddy]

Freddy:

We are moving away from automatically using ‘he’ when referring to a generic person.

In English the generic “he” is appropriate when referring to a person of unknown or indeterminate gender. The only substitute I have seen is to use “they” as a generic pronoun, but it is awkward and grammatically incorrect when using it as a generic pronoun in the singular.

If someone wants to use a different pronoun when speaking generically then she can do that easily enough.

See what I did then…?

 

[Freddy]

Freddy:

We are moving very slowly away from the fact that it makes sense for a woman who has a well paying job to maintain that job whilst her partner spends more time looking after the children.

Speaking as a very practical woman–

–if a woman decides that she want to nurse (breastfeed) her children, it’s not always an easy thing to do while working full-time.

In Australia you get 16 weeks paid maternity leave and a year unpaid. This allows a lot of women to take that year off with the child while the husband is working and then swap roles after the twelve months.

 

[fhansen]

Thank you-informative post.

 

[Viki63]

Of course I was generalizing. There are well-meaning people of all ideologies. But those who believe that gender is a social construct, that you can change your sex, that men can marry men, that babies are disposable, and that it’s better to be childless, are at a disadvantage.
I don’t agree whole heartedly with anyone; we all have different opinions. But you can separate people into groups by various categories. My husband’s, the Hispanic side of the family has about 40 nephews and nieces; on my side of the family we have two. People who value family are more likely to to reproduce.

 

[NevermoreLenore]

Generalities do nothing for positive discourse. But…have at it. I have very strong values and opinions by which I abide, but I don’t categorise people in a ‘good’ group vs ‘bad’ group way if someone doesn’t agree with me. Your first paragraph is basically an inference that all ‘liberals’ think all those things, which is false. No group is monolithic.

 

[Gorgias]

The fundamental task of each generation is to produce the next generation, so that our people will continue.

As a Christian, I think I’d respond that the “fundamental task” for humans is to love God and love one’s neighbor. Somewhere within those over-arching goals comes the notion of marriage. One of the goals of marriage is the procreation and care and formation of children.

So, I wouldn’t put procreation at the top of the list of the human ‘telos’, but it’d be present in that discussion.

 

[JimG]

Yes, I agree with that. God created the original couple and told them to increase and fill the earth, with the purpose of bringing mankind into full union with him in heaven. The concept of marriage is implicit in the creation of humanity as men and women.

 

[Leferdion]

Interesting way of thinking and it should be correct. The problem is, people renouncing family and children are not keeping their bad ideologies to themselves but are brainwashing the next generations through schools and media. So even if they dont procreate naturally, they still transmit their flawed way of thinking to children who believe it.
We all have to seriously pray everyday against this path ,mankind is taking. Only fervent prayer joint will sacrifice will protect the next generation.

 

[Freddy]

So even if they dont procreate naturally, they still transmit their flawed way of thinking to children who believe it.

Who are all these people who ‘don’t procreate naturally’? (not even sure what that means…). You seem to think they have a lot of sway. And when you consider that 2/3 of the States (for example) is Christian, the vast majority of the population believes in God and only about 4% are atheists then I’m even more puzzled.

It’s a fair bet that the majority of people who support ssm are Christian. That the majority of people who use contraception are Christian. That the majority of people who have abortions are Christian (and the greater percentage of them are actually Catholics). That the majority of people who get divorced are Christian. That the majority of people living with a partner to whom they are not married are Christian. That the vast majority of those who govern the country are Christian (zero atheists in Congress). That the vast majority of those working in the media are Christian.

If the situation was reversed and all these left wing, tree hugging, socialist, sexually permissive miscreants were the majority then you may have had a point. But they are not. So you don’t.

So that finger you are so keen on using to point the blame outwards might be better used pressed up against pursed lips in a position of thoughtfull countenance whilst you ponder the realities of the situation and how, and more importantly why, it differs from what you think should be the status quo.

 

[o_mlly]

We all have to seriously pray everyday against this path ,mankind is taking.

Yes.

In the various forms of democratic governance, society adopts as normative the values of its lowest common denominator. The secularists (aka atheists) pursue government approval for lifestyles that they claim require only the consent of two adults and do no harm to third parties. The lie in that argument is that the harm to third parties is unavoidable.

Vulnerable members of society cannot be unaffected by society’s tacit approval of disordered lifestyles and adopt those very lifestyles themselves as such lifestyles offer immediate physical pleasures and portend only long-term suffering. Western civilization in Europe and North America has abandoned the Judaeo-Christian principles of morality that made it what is was. Our children will now suffer the consequences for their parents abandonment of living according to God’s plan.

Is it not like the Garden of Eden story? For a bite of the forbidden fruit, our parents caused all mankind to suffer. God help us (again).

 

[JimG]

It’s a fair bet that the majority of people who support ssm are Christian. That the majority of people who use contraception are Christian. That the majority of people who have abortions are Christian (and the greater percentage of them are actually Catholics). That the majority of people who get divorced are Christian. That the majority of people living with a partner to whom they are not married are Christian.

If all this is true, then Christianity is not dying, it is already mostly deceased.

 

[Freddy]

Freddy:

It’s a fair bet that the majority of people who support ssm are Christian. That the majority of people who use contraception are Christian. That the majority of people who have abortions are Christian (and the greater percentage of them are actually Catholics). That the majority of people who get divorced are Christian. That the majority of people living with a partner to whom they are not married are Christian.

If all this is true, then Christianity is not dying, it is already mostly deceased.

Then this will make for depressing reading for you, Jim:

74% of divorces are Christian couples: Divorced or separated adults - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics | Pew Research Center

Just 15% of Catholics think contraception is wrong: Few Catholics See Contraceptive Use as Morally Wrong | Pew Research Center

74% of those who believe in God think abortion is ok in some or all cases: Views about abortion - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics | Pew Research Center

57% of those living in an unmarried partnership are Christian: Adults living with a partner - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics | Pew Research Center

About 2/3 of Protestants and Catholics support ssm: Changing Attitudes on Same-Sex Marriage | Pew Research Center

 

[JimG]

It looks like Catholics and protestants have all adapted themselves to the culture. Is it any wonder the churches are emptying? It isn’t just Joe Biden who has rejected Catholic teaching.