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The study of history is always tainted by the fact that we know how things turned out. So, in retrospect, it seems inevitable that things would go the way they did, and we look for reasons for that outcome that fit our preconceived worldview. So we're misled before we even begin, even if we're making an honest effort to understand.
This is an interesting time, as Western Civilization has quickly moved from making the world a better place, to seeking one way after another to destroy itself. Future historians will wonder how we went from pursuing happiness to persecuting liberty in only a couple of generations. It may seem inevitable, in the future, I suppose. Even though things could have gone differently, of course.
But out of all these various possible variants, there is one question that keeps occurring to me, over and over again: What exactly happened between the invention of the birth control pill and the invention of the internet?
Things seemed so great. For a while. Optimism was nearly unavoidable. Everything was wonderful, and getting better all the time.
Until it wasn't.
We stopped yelling at one another,
"Tastes great!"
"Less filling!"
Now we're yelling,
"Black Lives Matter!"
"Kill the Jews!"
Not all of us, of course. But Western Civilization has gone from unbridled optimism to unrestrained hatred. Seemingly overnight.
Society seems to have changed. When everything was going so swimmingly just recently.
As an athlete growing up in the 70's and 80's, very few people enjoyed the benefits of birth control pills more than I. And I love the internet. But it seems to me that those two events appear to have had absolutely enormous unintended consequences, which we are only now beginning to understand.
I loved both of those developments. But together, they seem to be destroying that which I love most of all: Western Civilization. What happened?
I've got to work tomorrow. So I can't drink enough bourbon to explore this question adequately.
Can anyone here save me a hangover, and explain this to me? What exactly happened between the invention of the birth control pill and the invention of the internet?
My liver thanks you in advance.
Discussion (59)
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Something that may or may not help: Sebastian Haffner, whose invaluable memoir of Germany between the wars I've often cited, had an interesting paragraph on the positive aspects of Weimar culture:
Despite everything, one could find a fresh atmosphere in Germany at this time…The barriers between the classes had become thin and permeable…There were many students who were labourers, and many young labourers who were students. Class prejudice and the starched-collar mentality were simply out of fashion. The relations between the sexes were freer and franker than ever–perhaps a fortunate by-product of the lack of discipline of the past years…we felt a bewildered sympathy for previous generations who had, in their youth, had the choice between unapproachable virgins for adoration and harlots for relaxation. Finally, a new hope even began to dawn in international relations; there was less prejudice and more understanding of the other side, and an unmistakable pleasure in the vivid variety that the world derives from its many peoples.
Even though Weimar didn't have birth control pills, it strikes me that to some extent his points could also be applied to the 1960s & 1970s era in United States.
And yet, we know what came only a little bit later.
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I think the birth control pill and it’s inevitable cousin, abortion are both evil. The pill introduced sterility to the sexual act as something to be celebrated. This is wrong. This leads to the death of Western Society and Civilization. We don’t reproduce enough - birth rates below replacement are very prevalent in the West. But what do I know - I’ve been drinking tequila.
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A number of things. Part was that the Soviets played a long game, and it is bearing fruit now that they are long gone. Part is that we became too wealthy a nation. We had too many university graduates and not enough tradesmen or tech school grads. We allowed childhood to extend from ending at thirteen to ending at twenty-six or beyond. Our people are far divorced from reality. Their actions are divorced from consequences. The system should take care of that, but the system in corrupt all the way through.
And I have nothing stronger than tea.
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This was initiated with women's right to vote. When Men had to start appealing to Women to win elections (and keep peace in the Home) it all went downhill.
The idea of Individualism transformed to needing to take care of one another. And that idea transformed from charity to government.
Edit: Vodka Arnold Palmer
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You are not wrong. End all the Progressive Amendments.
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