The Future Belongs Those Who Show Up For It!

People try to put us d-down (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we get around (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (talkin' 'bout my generation)

This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

Why don't you all f-fade away (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Don't try to dig what we all s-s-s-say (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm not trying to 'cause a big s-s-sensation (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation (talkin' 'bout my generation)

My generation
This is my generation, baby

Why don't you all f-fade away (talkin' 'bout my generation)
And don't try to d-dig what we all s-s-say (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm not trying to 'cause a b-big s-s-sensation (talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (talkin' 'bout my generation)

This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My, my, my generation

People try to put us d-down (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin' 'bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (talkin' 'bout my generation)

This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My, my, my generation

this is my generation
(Talkin' 'bout my generation) this is my generation
(Talkin' 'bout my generation) this is my generation
(Talkin' 'bout my generation) this is my generation
(Talkin' 'bout my generation) this is my generation

Source: LyricFind

Today’s rueful blog post is not pandemic“related”.

Yes, despite all the  “Pandemic” news from the CDC I was inspired instead by this  news announcement that had little to do with the “pandemic”, or current “politics”.  Instead  it was this: 

From the Wall Street Journal:

5/21/2020

U.S. Birthrates Fall to Record Low Last year’s data are another sign of how American childbearing, which began declining during the 2007-09 recession, never fully rebounded

Statistics showed. The general fertility rate fell 2% to 58.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, its lowest level since the government began tracking the figure in 1909.

The data are the latest sign of how American childbearing, which began declining during the 2007-09 recession, never fully rebounded when the economy bounced back. Millennials have been slower to form families than previous generations, in part, economists say, because they are less financially secure than those before them.

“There are a lot of people out there who would like to have two children, a larger family, and there’s something going on out there that makes people feel like they can’t do that,” said Melanie Brasher, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Rhode Island, who studies fertility.

Birthrates fell or held steady for women of all ages except those in their early 40s. Teenagers saw the sharpest drop, with a 5% decline in their birthrate. Since peaking in 1991, the teen birthrate has fallen 73%.

The total fertility rate—a snapshot of the average number of babies a woman would have over her lifetime—ticked down to 1.7 in 2019, a slight decline from the previous year and another record low. In almost all years since 1971, that rate has been below the level of 2.1 needed for the population to replace itself, without accounting for immigration.

A leveling off of births among Hispanic women, who account for nearly a quarter of U.S. births, is also driving the overall decline. They had about 885,900 babies last year, down slightly from 2018.

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is expected to further depress births in the coming years, experts say. “People that were products of the Great Depression, the birthrates were much lower for that cohort than they were for people born after World War II,” Prof. Brasher said.

That would continue to pressure the age balance of the population, exacerbating a shortage of young workers to help offset the Medicare and Social Security costs of America’s aging baby boomers.

The NCHS data also showed that the share of babies born preterm last year hit its highest level in more than a decade, with just over 1-in-10 being born before 37 weeks of gestation. The rate of women delivering via caesarean section fell slightly to 31.7%, continuing a decade of general declines in the procedure.

End of Article (Underlines are mine)

As I pondered this article, my mind in some unfathomable way started to go into overdrive.  I reflected on declining birthrates and its implications to our society in general and to my own thoughts on the societal changes that have occurred in my lifetime as a “baby boomer”.  Unlike Melanie Brasher from the University of Chicago, who said “There are a lot of people out there who would like to have two children, a larger family, and there’s something going on out there that makes people feel like they can’t do that,”

Fearless I decided I would try to speculate what is “going on”.

I started by “freethinking”-always dangerous, but compulsive.

First, I recalled my major in Anthropology at Lafayette. In my thinking about the declining birthrates, and its implications to our “society” one group in particular, “The Shakers”, came to mind.  (Of course, it did not stop there, I somehow remembered that a fellow student at Lafayette, one of our first female students, June Sprigg , went on to  became an “expert” in Shaker studies.  Funny how my darn mind can digress so far!  Do any of my College bloggers remember June?)

Well anyway, on to my speculations.

The Shakers “non-procreated” themselves right out of existence. From Wikipedia:

“Shakers are on the endangered list. There are now only two living members left of the Shaker Church in Maine after one died Monday. Sister Frances Carr passed away from cancer at 89. ... The current Shaker community, called Sabbath day Lake Shaker Village, is in Maine, where the two remaining members live.Jan 4, 2017).”

With that I started to “weave” my thoughts into this week post.

Unlike the Shakers, human societies all over the world historically have viewed propagation and nurturing the next generation as the main goal of their existence.  The nearly universal organizational structure of marriage (in one form or another) arose as the primary means to expand ‘society” and insure its’ continuity-ergo my Gmail moniker for many years now and the Title of this week’s post. “The future belongs to those who show who show up for it”. Obviously, I have pondered the “demographics” of birthrates long before I started blogging.

Propagating and “replicating” one’s group, and in turn their values has always been a fundamental principle of virtually every human society (Shakers aside). Yet remarkably in recent years Western societies have seemed to reject this principle almost as if by design.   Marriage as a necessary institution for organizing families has declined both statistically and as an imperative to childbearing.  More importantly over the last 20 years or so childbearing and child rearing has taken a back seat (in my mind anyway others may differ) and looked upon “procreation’ as secondary to one’s immediate economic needs.   This viewpoint seemed reflected in the views cited in this WSJ article.  The things driving our society’s values seem to have turned primarily to economics.  No longer do we find our values in church’s or extended families or in our local civic participation, but instead our focus seems driven by economic advancement.  Couple this with the idea that we need economic equality and parity amongst the sexes.  Success is found by material gain, and personal “fulfillment” in our occupation’s.  Being a successful mother or father is now secondary in our thinking and can occur only after we have been successful in our “economic career”.

This shift may well have been a natural evolution in a society that has taken a different view of equality and individual “rights” and responsibilities.  Maybe we ultimately will find that it was indeed the “right and only path modern society can take”. But for me I hesitate.  Perhaps Melanie could not (or would not contemplate) these cultural shifts in our views of male/female relationships and traditional family units.  Academically such thinking would get her kicked off campus.

I on the other hand fear not being a social dinosaur. For as I write this, I have nagging doubts about the implications of these changes and particularly how rapidly they have occurred.  I cannot help but think that these Declining birthrates may be the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for our social direction. Yes, perhaps it is a sign of the general malaise we see in of our society.

Which brings me to today’s first observation:

I believe that this fundamental shift started with my generation.  Our societies outlook has been shaped in a large part by the attitudes and values we baby boomers have passed on to our offspring.  Maybe, it is this rueful thinking in my advanced age is what leads me to so often “criticize” my cohort baby boomers, as I have repeatedly done in recent blog posts.  Perhaps, as one who considers himself a “social conservative” it is some wishful self-reflection or even a little self-flagellation. 

I will end with this final Observation:

I am no “futures” expert, much can change socially and demographically that I cannot contemplate.  However, these declining birthrates if they continue will mean that our legacy may, in the long term. be displaced by those societies that “show up for the future”.  Societies that will have different values and worldviews.  Perhaps even “better” ones. For in the end that is what happens to all societies ever since mankind first emerged.  Since I will not be around to see how this ultimately plays out, I can only speculate that my grand kids and great grand kids (hopefully) will find their own way just as humans always have.  I can only hope that they find that our social legacy was something to celebrate as we celebrated “The greatest generation”, but for some nagging reasons (because I am a social dinosaur?) I sure have my doubts!

With That I bid you

Adieu