Post: #1

In this 250-page book Mary Eberstadt offers a new theory of secularization of the West. She is not a social scientist, so at times the reasoning doesn't seem very rigorous, but the case is compelling nonetheless.

The West didn't lose religion, whereafter it then lost family. Rather, Eberstadt posits that the West first lost family, THEN religion. The reasoning is as follows: without family, our need for religious institutions is diminished. We are atomized individuals, increasingly selfish and focused on fulfilling own needs. Christianity, on the other hand, provides a framework for, essentially, rationalizing the effort required to hold a family together. It is a crude summary, but it basically goes along these lines.

As the nuclear family has disintegrated, it has been in the interest of many to denigrate that model, not least because it allows the hamster in us all to justify the increasingly deviant behavior even as it offends our religious morals. In a misunderstood effort to retain followers, Christian churches have themselves revised moral codes and positions on a number of issues, not least homosexuality. This has only served to exacerbate the problem (I am not sure I understood why).

If religion then depends on the success of the family, why then did the family begin its decline?

Eberstadt believes the demographic decline came with urbanization and industrialization. Both serve to undermine the pressures, usually social and moral pressures, that try to keep two individuals together in spite of their tempers and idiosyncrasies. Next, came the pill, and this is where Eberstadt's book integrates wonderfully with Charles Murray, Heartiste and others.

The pill set women free and basically made most men redundant. Trends of increased cohabitation, out-of-wedlock births and divorces skyrocketed. As George Gilder in Sexual Suicide wrote - for civilization, the feminine nature is needed to tame the masculine force for creation or destruction and channel it into creative and constructive endeavors that we all benefit from. For this to be possible, he needs to spend his efforts on one female rather than many. The pill renders men redundant, because now women may sleep with whomever they wish without the risk of pregnancy. Now all women can sleep with the desirable male, and the male who wins no favor can stay in his Mom's cellar and jack off.

As Charles Murray in "Comping Apart: The State of White America" noted, the American male, especially the white American male of the lower classes, has experienced a total civilizational collapse. Heartiste has an excellent review here that again ties Murray's work to game. As women abandon their earlier roles of home-keepers and wives to pursue their own desires they:

Have fewer children, and these more often out of wedlock, which leads to less religion - Christianity in our case
Are less likely to stay together with a single male - which deprives most men of the motivation to commit themselves to productive endeavor. It is shown clearly in statistics that being married has all sorts of positive externalities for men.

For society, too, marriage has many positive externalities. Married women are the main vehicle through which well-socialized, happy, emotionally mature young citizens are raised, to the benefit of society at large. This is in part because being married, with children, inspires more religious behavior, which provides the institutional setting ideal for socializing and instilling in children good morals - and as Robert Putnam has shown, religion leads to more charity, longer and healthier lives, and greater happiness for individuals.

Therefore: urbanization, industrialization and finally the pill all dealt heavy blows to the family. Next came the welfare state (which could explain the particularly disastrous state of families in Europe, not least Scandinavia).

These in turn rendered God first a major annoyance, insofar as he served as constant reminder of one's own moral inadequacy, next he became increasingly unnecessary, as women, the most faithful Christians, were removed from civil society, where religion was an obvious component, and instead entered the work-force to earn own wages and self-realization. Whereas men would earn their wages to primarily provide for their families, women entered the labor force to fulfill own desires of self-actualization and similar platitudes. In Scandinavia at least, now the crushing burden of the welfare state practically forces women into the labor force if they have any desire to maintain a middle-class lifestyle.

Overall, I think the book deserves at least 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe 4.5 The only area it falls short, in my opinion, is somewhat poor attempt at scientific rigor that is not entirely convincing, and in making a poor attempt at pretending not be a call to arms to help restore Western families.