Saturday, January 21, 2006

Domination and Procreation

No culture is immune from desiring, perhaps at the collective subconscious level, the opportunity to be king of the hill for a while. The current self-loathing exhibited by western cultural and academic elites is a relatively new condition caused by the feverish neuroses of late 20th century political correctness. However, recorded history prior to the 20th century is remarkably devoid of firesales of power, and even those Americans who would like nothing better than to see America severely humbled do flex their political and rhetorical muscle with nervy confidence in the morality of their cause. In short, "everybody wants to rule the world" (copyright, Tears for Fears), or at least a share of it.
Cultures with said urges to dominate have collective plans. Conservative Americans plan to win the 'war on terror'; liberal Americans plan to win the war on conservatives. Europhiles plan to nurture a continental social and economic bloc to one day counterbalance American hegemony. The Chinese plan to grow the world's largest economy and host the Olympics. Fundamentalist Muslims in Iran plan to overthrow the Great Western Satan, install Sharia law and finally clean this planet up.
However, these plans all require people. Lots of them. I mean millions and millions of them. All kinds - men, women. And at the current rate most of these plans wil have to be shelved simply because they lack the necessary populations to carry them out.
Spengler of the Asian Times and Mark Steyn of Opinion Journal both offer entertaining and illuminating descriptions of the how demographic reality will ultimately determine the success or failure of the great cultural/economic/religious projects of our time.