Down to Earth Again—Staying in Touch with What Matters: The Empirical World

This part of the book comprises a series of independent entries. Here is an excerpt: “We have managed to kill the feeling of children being a blessing in the Western world. There are exceptions, Italy is still a country where people are so much in love with kids, especially smaller and small kids, and babies of course. But this does not mean that in Italy many people have babies, or two babies at least (one for each parent). Responsibilities are out, lifelong partnerships (marriages, etc.) are out. So, children, bambini, are quickly becoming a thing of the past, not just one’s own past, but the past of many societies. There will be children, but way too less. Too less to carry on traditions, and societal peculiarities. Many cultures will blend and/or perish. Societies will blend and/or perish. It is not hip to speak out the truth about the relative non-continuation of Western societies and cultures. But yet, here we are in a situation where having kids is not cool anymore; mobbing and bullying in form of medial assaults of all kinds (e.g. assaults in movies, in magazines, and especially assaults in all forms of social media) have risen, and the passion and rational support, as well as practical support ... have long vanished or become out of fashion, a thing not to do, not to desire. The modern welfare state and modern cultures of this and that have killed societal fertility and with it societal happiness, all in one.”