This reminds me of Matthew B. Crawford’s book “The World Beyond Your Head” , specifically a chapter entitled “Autism as Design Principle”.
Basically, what you’ve recognized about the future (or, rather, the present) being autistic is the result of 1) the human world lacking basically intelligibility, controlled as it is by impersonal forces (“globalization”, bureaucracy, etc.), 2) my inability to directly affect the world around me because of my inability to understand it, and 3) experiences filled with perfectly controllable, repeatable, stimulus-response pseudo-actions with predictable outcomes that gratify the need to exercise the will, where I can do something and actually see an inteligible effect.
This is just another sign I need to check out Crawford’s work soon, especially since I’ll be at that Catskills conference with him and Kingsnorth (won’t you be there too?). “Pseudo-action” is a great term.
Have you watched the show Severance? It hints at all those themes in the story of a Kafka-esque workplace where the workers choose to “sever” their work selves from their recreation selves. Inside the corporation, the workers’ tasks make zero sense but are motivated by stupid little incentives that work on them because of their severed selves’ lack of a larger perspective and sense of meaning.
Oh, heck yeah!!! Our slides are right next to each other 😂 I hadn’t put two and two together — looking forward to meeting you! “Pseudo-action” is Crawford’s term and I think it’s really helpful. A sort of agency-less physical gesture, barely more than a twitch. Swiping the screen of one’s phone might fall into this category.
I haven’t watched Severance. Sounds morbidly intriguing.
Certified Autist here. I mostly agree. One thing: It's an autist trait to care much about stability in one's immediate surroundings, like family. Another thing: Autism with low intelligence is a trainwreck; there's evolutionary pressure linking autistic traits to intelligence. Sometimes you get Hitler, sometimes you get a helpful genius.
Glad there’s at least one commenting here! Thanks. Well, that is a very good principle to build a family upon, and wow that also makes it particularly tragic for autistic kids that so many families break up these days (including my autistic cousin’s).
I wonder if the stability principle is the main driver in the way the Collins family parents their children. I definitely recommend the article referenced if you haven’t read it. It’s super interesting, and they’re very honest about their life. I have a lot of sympathy for them, despite their oddities. Apparently now they’re getting a lot of flack for spanking their kids (which I also do; when kids are small, you can’t use words and reason).
This was very insightful. Especially, the part about how religion makes us see ourselves as a small part of a bigger ecosystem was edifying. I would like to read more about that! Thank you.
I have two thoughts to share which may or may not be influenced by my autism.
I’m thinking that the Biden administration‘s open border policy may be based partly on addressing a need to replenish a diminishing population of US citizens.
Secondly, I agree that the populations in the world will be largely replenished by the religious. Unfortunately that religion is mostly Islam.
Thanks for your thoughts! Huh interesting on Biden. Though I’m thinking the main motive is to replenish his voter base. (Maybe I’m too cynical.)
Apparently Mormons are also having tons of kids. I think LDS and Islam both have teachings that base the value of women on their fertility, so maybe that’s the force behind it.
I just think that when God gives the blessing of His babies, he should be thanked and praised for the grace of the temporary stewardship of His babies.
Having children is part of normal human life, not the vocation for everybody, but the vocation for most people. I don't think at age 60 anybody regrets having the number of children they do; does anybody not regret having more? I ask this question seriously.
In any case, what people look back and wish they'd done in their 20's is a pretty good guide for the kind of mistakes we usually make in that decade.
As far as public policy goes, I've seen good arguments for low birth rates, but not for high birth rates. A bigger population makes the world more crowded, which is usually bad. It also incurs high costs via the education, crime, and general folly of young people. I wish I'd had more children; I don't wish other people had. With the decline of birth rates, the return to capital will go down and the return to labor, especially unskilled labor, will go up. Housing prices will fall; the price of servants will rise, including the servants we call "health care workers". The main problem is that the old people, who are more powerful, will probably try to raise taxes on the young people's wages rather than reducing government spending on themselves or taxing capital income.
Oh, interesting with the public policy. But isn’t there a point at which low birth rates become very problematic? I am thinking about South Korea and the predictions that at their current rate, there will be no Koreans in fifty years. Do you think immigration from Africa will fill the gaps? And what we may be looking at is more of an ethnic shift worldwide?
Thank you for boldly and thoughtfully sharing this. If this is where the future is going, I feel a true hope as a Christ follower for what God wants to do through the witness of the Christian family! For in a world where children are forsaken and utilitarian, I can see the mothers and fathers who follow Christ shining brightly like the Christians of Roman times.
Yes, it is definitely our duty and pleasure to care for "the least of these." I hope we Christians can also help to provide care to the vulnerable aging population, given the growing deficit of humane care there.
I’m still figuring out what a gracious but honest response is when people who plan on the DINK lifestyle ask me my opinion. How do I say, “extra money admittedly does sound nice, but also, you’re selfish,” without using those words exactly? 😆
Anyways, one thing that struck me as I read your writing is that Christianity’s reverence towards life and humanity is truly a revolution, as cheesy and YA Fiction as that sounds. I’ve heard lots of people complain about how Christians pressure women into giving birth (nevermind the fact that all my Christian friends actually WANT their children), but I haven’t heard anyone else state as beautifully as you do here the fact that Christians really do preserve life when the rest of society would rather stamp it out.
There’s a great book—Dominion by Tom Holland—that historically spells out how radical Christ’s preaching of universal human dignity was in the context of Greek culture, where slaves and women (and children) were considered little more than animals. For example, the law of Roman “paterfamilias” gave male heads of households the right to kill or sell anyone in their family without legal consequences.
Personally I am not sure if the trend towards not having children is due to the selfishness or otherwise of society or more a subconscious response to resource constraint in an overpopulated world. If this is true, then I think birthrates will rise again without any intervention, once population levels and economic culture stabilize to a level where people can have hope for the futures of their children. I do agree that population growth will be led by folks who are more religious. And that will hopefully have good effects on building a culture that holds to a better balance than what we have now, especially in community and caring for one another.
The weird thing about the trend is that it’s most pronounced in the wealthiest countries! People who have the most resources are the least likely to have kids. But I agree it doesn’t seem like personal selfishness is entirely to blame for the trend.
I just watched the Birthgap documentary, and the data scientist creator makes the claim that what he calls “involuntary childlessness” is at fault. There’s an increasing number of people who always wanted to have kids but for various reasons are unable to do so.
Although the fact that this trend exists is crystal clear, the reasons are extremely mysterious!
Yes the reasons certainly are mysterious! I think all of the reasons I've seen suggested are a part of it but not all of it. And as to the birthrate dropping the most in rich countries, these are also the countries where it costs the most to raise children, and also where it is very apparent that any child born today will be downwardly mobile, they will be worse off than their parents. Not just the same as, (which I think people can accept, it's how we lived for 1000s of years - peasants stayed peasants but they usually didn't end up as slaves) but significantly worse off. That's a hard pill to swallow when choosing to bring a life into the world.
We've been in the "Age of Asperger" for a while now (to borrow a term from Christopher Badcock), but the invention of the cell phone really accelerated the trend ...
How excess reading (including reading screens) in lieu of in-person interaction causes and exacerbates autistic traits --
Connection between the declining average age of puberty, the environmental and social pressure on children to grow up too quickly, and how that can result in, for lack of better words, a failure to fully grow into adulthood (and an autistic way of viewing the world) --
My gosh thank you for chiming in and sharing this. I had no idea people had dedicated their careers to examining this phenomenon before you and other commenters referenced them.
Absolutely true. Kind of stuff like the ones I was just discussing on a post this week. Similarly , I admit I still need to learn and understand autism better. However, I must admit..the trend with autism's not looking good at all
The witch trope is fascinating. I guess nowadays many children are emotional foundlings.
I think in my locale one of the reasons most women choose work over raising their children has to do with community. As in, since the majority of educated women choose not to stay home, staying home can be a horribly isolating experience for the mother, especially if she’s shy. The mother herself isn’t heartless—shes just going with the flow and trying to retain her sanity. Because she’s in a bad place, her kids are in a bad place. The current culture destroys love and tenderness for everyone.
But I think you could be right about a witch-like “spirit of the age” that, because it hates children, also hates mothers and has destroyed the social infrastructure that formerly made motherhood easier.
Yes, if the only goal is to increase the world’s population with no larger concept of human dignity, I think they might approve of this. You’d have to ask Elon though 😁
This reminds me of Matthew B. Crawford’s book “The World Beyond Your Head” , specifically a chapter entitled “Autism as Design Principle”.
Basically, what you’ve recognized about the future (or, rather, the present) being autistic is the result of 1) the human world lacking basically intelligibility, controlled as it is by impersonal forces (“globalization”, bureaucracy, etc.), 2) my inability to directly affect the world around me because of my inability to understand it, and 3) experiences filled with perfectly controllable, repeatable, stimulus-response pseudo-actions with predictable outcomes that gratify the need to exercise the will, where I can do something and actually see an inteligible effect.
You’re right on the money, imo.
This is just another sign I need to check out Crawford’s work soon, especially since I’ll be at that Catskills conference with him and Kingsnorth (won’t you be there too?). “Pseudo-action” is a great term.
Have you watched the show Severance? It hints at all those themes in the story of a Kafka-esque workplace where the workers choose to “sever” their work selves from their recreation selves. Inside the corporation, the workers’ tasks make zero sense but are motivated by stupid little incentives that work on them because of their severed selves’ lack of a larger perspective and sense of meaning.
Oh, heck yeah!!! Our slides are right next to each other 😂 I hadn’t put two and two together — looking forward to meeting you! “Pseudo-action” is Crawford’s term and I think it’s really helpful. A sort of agency-less physical gesture, barely more than a twitch. Swiping the screen of one’s phone might fall into this category.
I haven’t watched Severance. Sounds morbidly intriguing.
Certified Autist here. I mostly agree. One thing: It's an autist trait to care much about stability in one's immediate surroundings, like family. Another thing: Autism with low intelligence is a trainwreck; there's evolutionary pressure linking autistic traits to intelligence. Sometimes you get Hitler, sometimes you get a helpful genius.
Glad there’s at least one commenting here! Thanks. Well, that is a very good principle to build a family upon, and wow that also makes it particularly tragic for autistic kids that so many families break up these days (including my autistic cousin’s).
I wonder if the stability principle is the main driver in the way the Collins family parents their children. I definitely recommend the article referenced if you haven’t read it. It’s super interesting, and they’re very honest about their life. I have a lot of sympathy for them, despite their oddities. Apparently now they’re getting a lot of flack for spanking their kids (which I also do; when kids are small, you can’t use words and reason).
This was very insightful. Especially, the part about how religion makes us see ourselves as a small part of a bigger ecosystem was edifying. I would like to read more about that! Thank you.
Well done !
I have two thoughts to share which may or may not be influenced by my autism.
I’m thinking that the Biden administration‘s open border policy may be based partly on addressing a need to replenish a diminishing population of US citizens.
Secondly, I agree that the populations in the world will be largely replenished by the religious. Unfortunately that religion is mostly Islam.
Thanks for your thoughts! Huh interesting on Biden. Though I’m thinking the main motive is to replenish his voter base. (Maybe I’m too cynical.)
Apparently Mormons are also having tons of kids. I think LDS and Islam both have teachings that base the value of women on their fertility, so maybe that’s the force behind it.
Yes.
I don’t think fertility should be focused on.
I just think that when God gives the blessing of His babies, he should be thanked and praised for the grace of the temporary stewardship of His babies.
Having children is part of normal human life, not the vocation for everybody, but the vocation for most people. I don't think at age 60 anybody regrets having the number of children they do; does anybody not regret having more? I ask this question seriously.
In any case, what people look back and wish they'd done in their 20's is a pretty good guide for the kind of mistakes we usually make in that decade.
As far as public policy goes, I've seen good arguments for low birth rates, but not for high birth rates. A bigger population makes the world more crowded, which is usually bad. It also incurs high costs via the education, crime, and general folly of young people. I wish I'd had more children; I don't wish other people had. With the decline of birth rates, the return to capital will go down and the return to labor, especially unskilled labor, will go up. Housing prices will fall; the price of servants will rise, including the servants we call "health care workers". The main problem is that the old people, who are more powerful, will probably try to raise taxes on the young people's wages rather than reducing government spending on themselves or taxing capital income.
Oh, interesting with the public policy. But isn’t there a point at which low birth rates become very problematic? I am thinking about South Korea and the predictions that at their current rate, there will be no Koreans in fifty years. Do you think immigration from Africa will fill the gaps? And what we may be looking at is more of an ethnic shift worldwide?
GIRL, every word. Amazing work.
Haley - I was just about to tag you on this post as I thought this would be up your alley!
Thanks so much, Haley!
Thank you for boldly and thoughtfully sharing this. If this is where the future is going, I feel a true hope as a Christ follower for what God wants to do through the witness of the Christian family! For in a world where children are forsaken and utilitarian, I can see the mothers and fathers who follow Christ shining brightly like the Christians of Roman times.
Yes, it is definitely our duty and pleasure to care for "the least of these." I hope we Christians can also help to provide care to the vulnerable aging population, given the growing deficit of humane care there.
I’m still figuring out what a gracious but honest response is when people who plan on the DINK lifestyle ask me my opinion. How do I say, “extra money admittedly does sound nice, but also, you’re selfish,” without using those words exactly? 😆
Anyways, one thing that struck me as I read your writing is that Christianity’s reverence towards life and humanity is truly a revolution, as cheesy and YA Fiction as that sounds. I’ve heard lots of people complain about how Christians pressure women into giving birth (nevermind the fact that all my Christian friends actually WANT their children), but I haven’t heard anyone else state as beautifully as you do here the fact that Christians really do preserve life when the rest of society would rather stamp it out.
There’s a great book—Dominion by Tom Holland—that historically spells out how radical Christ’s preaching of universal human dignity was in the context of Greek culture, where slaves and women (and children) were considered little more than animals. For example, the law of Roman “paterfamilias” gave male heads of households the right to kill or sell anyone in their family without legal consequences.
Personally I am not sure if the trend towards not having children is due to the selfishness or otherwise of society or more a subconscious response to resource constraint in an overpopulated world. If this is true, then I think birthrates will rise again without any intervention, once population levels and economic culture stabilize to a level where people can have hope for the futures of their children. I do agree that population growth will be led by folks who are more religious. And that will hopefully have good effects on building a culture that holds to a better balance than what we have now, especially in community and caring for one another.
The weird thing about the trend is that it’s most pronounced in the wealthiest countries! People who have the most resources are the least likely to have kids. But I agree it doesn’t seem like personal selfishness is entirely to blame for the trend.
I just watched the Birthgap documentary, and the data scientist creator makes the claim that what he calls “involuntary childlessness” is at fault. There’s an increasing number of people who always wanted to have kids but for various reasons are unable to do so.
Although the fact that this trend exists is crystal clear, the reasons are extremely mysterious!
Yes the reasons certainly are mysterious! I think all of the reasons I've seen suggested are a part of it but not all of it. And as to the birthrate dropping the most in rich countries, these are also the countries where it costs the most to raise children, and also where it is very apparent that any child born today will be downwardly mobile, they will be worse off than their parents. Not just the same as, (which I think people can accept, it's how we lived for 1000s of years - peasants stayed peasants but they usually didn't end up as slaves) but significantly worse off. That's a hard pill to swallow when choosing to bring a life into the world.
We've been in the "Age of Asperger" for a while now (to borrow a term from Christopher Badcock), but the invention of the cell phone really accelerated the trend ...
How excess reading (including reading screens) in lieu of in-person interaction causes and exacerbates autistic traits --
https://thecassandracomplex.substack.com/p/the-dangers-of-reading-too-much-part
Connection between the declining average age of puberty, the environmental and social pressure on children to grow up too quickly, and how that can result in, for lack of better words, a failure to fully grow into adulthood (and an autistic way of viewing the world) --
https://thecassandracomplex.substack.com/p/the-lost-girls-and-boys
My gosh thank you for chiming in and sharing this. I had no idea people had dedicated their careers to examining this phenomenon before you and other commenters referenced them.
Absolutely true. Kind of stuff like the ones I was just discussing on a post this week. Similarly , I admit I still need to learn and understand autism better. However, I must admit..the trend with autism's not looking good at all
The witch trope is fascinating. I guess nowadays many children are emotional foundlings.
I think in my locale one of the reasons most women choose work over raising their children has to do with community. As in, since the majority of educated women choose not to stay home, staying home can be a horribly isolating experience for the mother, especially if she’s shy. The mother herself isn’t heartless—shes just going with the flow and trying to retain her sanity. Because she’s in a bad place, her kids are in a bad place. The current culture destroys love and tenderness for everyone.
But I think you could be right about a witch-like “spirit of the age” that, because it hates children, also hates mothers and has destroyed the social infrastructure that formerly made motherhood easier.
Yes, if the only goal is to increase the world’s population with no larger concept of human dignity, I think they might approve of this. You’d have to ask Elon though 😁