This post from Andrew Sullivan, and similar nonsense, is really beginning to get under my skin. In it he claims that Donald Sensing is giving us the "honest truth" when he claims:
Sex, childbearing and marriage now have no necessary connection to one another, because the biological connection between sex and childbearing is controllable. The fundamental basis for marriage has thus been technologically obviated. Pair that development with rampant, easy divorce without social stigma, and talk in 2004 of "saving marriage" is pretty specious. There's little there left to save.
The point isn't about "childbearing" for heaven's sake. It's about child rearing. And to siderail the argument to "child bearing" is either dishonest, or it's so dumb the only appropriate response is a jaw drop. Can it possibly be that one must actually go to the trouble of explaining the difference between quantity and quality to an intelligent person? I mean, I'm willing... but it's a little like explaining that religion is no longer about human sacrifice. Andrew, this is breathtakingly, spectacularly stupid! Grow the heck up, will yah?
Besides , if marriage is an institution in wreckage just why is it you're so animated about gaining entry?
The bottom line is that further separating marriage from child-rearing, contributing to family dissolution, could not only undermine human institutions, it could very possibly result in permanent electrochemical degradation of the brain functioning of a generation, which could in turn result in a permanent and irredeemable downward spiral of the culture. And this doesn't even consider the corrosive effects of family dissolution already identified by Pat Moynihan, et al. I'm sorry, but it's just hard for me to imagine anything with more destructive potential for society.
Posted by Demosophist at March 15, 2004 03:48 PM | TrackBackCould you explain more about how this could result in the "permanent electrochemical degradation of the brain functioning of a generation"?
Posted by: linden at March 19, 2004 10:36 PMCould you explain more about how this could result in the "permanent electrochemical degradation of the brain functioning of a generation"?
I realize it's sort of a leap. Recent research on early childhood development suggests that certain "risk factors" that occur in the child's home before age 3 have an irreversible effect on IQ. The strongest of those risk factors is related to whether or not both parents are in the home. But all of the risk factors are impacted by family dissolution. So if SSM contributes indirectly to family dissolution (something that has not been conclusively proved, but is at least a significant possibility) it couldn't help but have an effect on IQ. And this is in addition to all the behavioral and developmental problems that we've known about since Moynihan brought them to our attention 30-some years ago.
Posted by: Scott (to Linden) at March 19, 2004 11:51 PM