A House Divided Cannot Stand

I read a good amount of science fiction. One of the saddest books was one called "Childhood's End" by Arthur Clarke. Written in 1953, it was a statement built on the changing society from the early to middle 20th century. It discussed a generation gap in brutal terms. In the story mysterious Overlords begin to systematically destroy human civilization by removing or negating all vestiges of culture. Indeed, some parts of culture become toxic in order to dissuade subsequent generations from honoring. 

The saddest part of this story is the end, where the youngest generation begin to manifest powers. In the case of what was then Cold War Europe these were written as what we would called supernatural behaviors with the youngest children being the most profoundly impacted. Eventually the children become dissociated with older generations and drift away to the unknown, disappearing one by one. 

Perhaps you see where I am going. During Clarke's time the biggest fear was nuclear war as promoted by the Soviet Union. Today it is a cultural tug of war that resembles a WWE tag team death match more than a civil discourse as envisioned by the Founders. But who are the Overlords? Right now it appears that Academia has been a secure nest for radicalism to hatch it's adherents. They in turn lure, intimidate and attack all opposition without facts and with the blessings of the same Academic Overlords.

As people who have worked our entire lives seeing families survive through intimidation brought about by lack of oil, too many taxes, mindless regulations, corrupt manipulations of the market, we more than anyone else should have some sort of say in what the future holds. But we are being denied that opportunity. The epithet "Okay Boomer" is every bit as dismissive and offensive as any racial, gender or religious slur. Unlike the folks out on the streets embracing anarchy, we've seen this before, but never here.

Our children are being turned against us. When you take out those that vote for socialism because they've always supported it, the majority of supporters for socialism are young. They have had it much easier than earlier generations. Many of them do not remember a time before cell phones and computers. These same groups, cossetted and protected by a trophy for everyone mentality, seem to think their words are golden. In fact so much do they believe this that even when discussing facts, they refuse because it's not on their own carefully curated sources of information.

Beyond Academia, this is an issue of limited media sources. When I worked in a newsroom 30 years ago there were reporters writing local stories or writing stories on state and national issues with a view toward how it impacts their city or town. Now those writers are gone. There are columnists-who are more often the official spox for whatever views the editorial board holds. But the straight news meant for local consumption doesn't exist outside of the Sports Pages. Instead we have glorified copy boys and girls who take a wire story from AP or Reuters or CNN or McLatchy and relabel it as their own. When you narrow the sources of news, you can more easily control it. And when you see the prevailing narrative presented, it lets you know who is controlling it.

Between Academia with a mission and Journalism with a grudge, we have seen launched an idea that freedom of speech is only okay when you agree and intimidation using violence is honorable. When you watch Republicans being threatened and assaulted outside an event, harassed at dinner, doxxed, followed home and harassed and realize the glee with which the media is showing this, it should tell you all you know about the confluence of the MSM and the Left. When you consider these things never seem to occur to Democrats, it's a tell and a wink from the media that they know who's paying them behind the scenes. 

The end of the book "Childhood's End" goes like this:

"The Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them. By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness when the children have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Rodricks reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfillment. The Earth evaporates in a flash of light. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species."

I'm not suggesting this election is the end of the world. But it may be the end of our world as we know it. Some of the propositions from the Sanders' platform, blindly accepted by the DNC (although nearly a third of the DNC convention delegates opposed it.) is so economically catastrophic that our nation would be transformed and not in a good way. Add to that demands of Antifa and BLM to seize the assets of others to appease their own politics of envy and you have the basis for what could be the destruction of the union and the conversion of the USA into Venezuela. This election matters. Vote like you have a brain.

Why Millennials Should Have Kids

There's a great number of stories in the media these days on why Millennials aren't having children. Most of those articles concentrate on the economics of children over the emotional investment. I find this to be a very sullen case of a generation that has documented every meal, every event and sometimes every emotion in online drama. In short, I think they need to grow up. But there are more reasons that Millennials should have kids. Let me outline why millennials-some of the most highly educated, carefully insulated and categorically managed group in history-should have children.

1. Having children will teach you to love on a level that you have never loved before.
If you buy sweaters for your dogs or toys for your kittens, if you watch then online at work courtesy of motion detection cameras, then you have a capacity to care, but not on the level that you will love a child. Babies grow into entirely separate people, which in and of itself is a miracle. More than that babies and children can think and reason and communicate on a level you will never achieve with your pet dog, cat or wombat. In the vast scheme of things, kids are just more fun.

2. Having children will help you grow up. No matter how affluent, parents too often find them must bend their own desires in order to accommodate their children. For Millennials who are used to having control of Every. Single. Aspect. of their lives, this is a good thing. Life is messy and disorganized. Whimsey and caprice are simple facts of life. Learning to roll with the punches, to deny yourself for the benefit of others is a good thing. It's the type of attitude our society needs to experience more, but seems disinclined to nurture. Having to stay up all night with a crying baby and still get up to face the day is a far more courageous action than partying with friends and moaning about the hangover at work the next day. Selflessness is an acquired trait-it builds character.

3. Having children will help you learn to be truthful. If you think you want to be the kind of person your dog expects you to be, consider how you want to appear to your children. Children are mirrors of family life. They are honest to a fault. They will let you know via word or deed when things are working and when they are not. Watching a child operate in the world is a far better template for behavior than most of what we see in the adult world. And troubled kids are a clear indicator of adults needing to clean up their acts.

4. Having children will expand your goals. Most Millennials don't think much beyond their own personal Venn diagram life. But what happens outside and beyond matters. It's been proven than societies that have fewer children value educational facilities less. Who is going to care for your ailments if there are not enough medical workers? What is more, who will take care of you when you are aging? Much of the Boomer generation is dealing with that right now. While you watch your parents care for aging grandparents have you considered who will handle your estate, your DNR orders, your demise? Who will comfort your spouse? Who will carry those family memories? Are you really willing to simply let them fade away? When it comes to that, if you only have one child, do you feel at ease leaving them alone with those memories?

5. Having children will keep you young. I've witnessed childless friends and their aging process isn't pretty. It's not that people with kids don't have medical issues, but childless couples seem adrift in our society. They are often limited to socializing with people their own age and as that group continues to get up there in years, the interaction with the current world fades. They become disconnected socially politically, emotionally. They frequently become people who only discuss medical care, funerals and politics. This more than any organic disease leads to much of the depression and dementia seen in seniors. Is that really what you want?

6. Having children will teach you fear.  That might seem like a bad thing, but it is not. Life is a rollercoaster. The depth of your fear is equal to the height of your joy. (Sorry-Khalil Gibran...) Being a parent is one of the scariest most joyous things you will ever do. You will watch a sleeping child just to see them breathing. You will wait up after dances and parties. You will feel your heart break when your child is left out or bullied. But you will also feel unbridled pride when your child gets an award, graduates, gets married or has children of their own. You cannot experience such emotion unless you take the risk of having children.

7. Having children will give you faith. While Americans are "unchurched" more, there is nobody more faithful than a parent worrying about a child. Do you think any parent at St. Jude's waits outside the treatment room praying to Science? Do you think that any parent can not marvel at the utter beauty of a sleeping child or that their own offspring are so creative, clever, talented and fun? Regardless of your faith or upbringing, you cannot truly care about humankind unless you understand that something beyond mere biology makes up the human psyche. If that's not faith, I don't know what to call it.

I think this generation of Millennials has been raised to fear everything. They want to be safe instead of free. They fear what they view as encumbrance of marriage, monogamy, children, family as some sort of trap instead of a support trellis on which they can grow. They want to know the answers to the test before they take it. They want insurance. Life is not a sure thing. It's a balance of risk and security. You can have your half caff latte daily or you can have love. You can have "experiences" traveling and doing, but your photos will eventually mean nothing. When nobody says your name, you die a second death. When you fail to have children, you may do it for yourself, but you do it TO everyone who came before. Their stories become lost. While I would never advocate for people who truly don't want kids to have them, the false cries over economics and social issues denies the very humanity Millennials claim to embrace.