by matttbastard
The latest issue of The Nation features a disturbing cover story by Kathryn Joyce on how the American religious far-right is tapping nativist insecurity in Europe to take its made-in-the-USA anti-choice message global.
A sample:
The imminent demise of Europe is a popular prediction these days, with books such as Catholic scholar George Weigel’s The Cube and the Cathedral, Melanie Phillips’s Londonistan, Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept and Pat Buchanan’s Death of the West all appearing since 2001. The 2006 film Children of Men sketched a sterile, dystopian world thrown into chaos for lack of babies (though with less blatant antiabortion implications than the Christian allegorical P.D. James novel on which it was based). The media increasingly sound the alarm as Eastern European countries register birthrates halved since the last generation. And on February 11, the Family First Foundation, a profamily group in the same movement circles as [Steve] Mosher and [Christine] de Vollmer, released a documentary dedicated to the threat: Demographic Winter: The Decline of the Human Family.
What was a conservative drumbeat about Europe’s death has become mainstream media shorthand, complementing ominous news items about Muslim riots in France; Muslim boycotts in London; Muslim “veil” debates in Denmark; and empty European churches transformed into mosques, with calls to prayer replacing church bells. Evangelical luminary Chuck Colson, head of the vast Prison Fellowship ministry and a close ally of George W. Bush, espoused a conspiracy theory in which he construed an Islamic Council of Europe handbook for Muslims trying to keep the faith abroad as a “soft terrorism” plot for takeover. The late Oriana Fallaci lambasted Europe’s transformation into a Muslim colony, “Eurabia.” And in a recent political match in Switzerland, a campaign poster depicted a flock of white sheep kicking a black sheep out of their pasture, “For Greater Security.” The refrain is that the good-faith multicultural tolerance approach of the Netherlands has been tried and has failed, which is arguably a few polite steps from Mosher’s summary of the problem: that Muslim immigrants are simply “too many and too culturally different from their new countries’ populations to assimilate quickly…. They are contributing to the cultural suicide of these nations as they commit demographic suicide.” Or, as he declared while rallying a gathering of profamily activists last spring in Poland, “I want to see more Poles!”
Or more Russians, or more Italians, as the case may be. The fever for more “European” babies is widespread. The last two popes have involved themselves in the debate, with John Paul II pronouncing a “crisis of births” in 2002 in an anomalous papal address to Italy’s Parliament and Benedict XVI remarking on the “tragedy” of childless European couples and beatifying an Italian peasant woman for raising twelve children.
At the national level, in 2004 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi offered a “baby bonus” of about $1,000 to parents who had a second child, and Russia, which has a history of pronatalist policies, including its 1980s-era “motherhood medals,” sweetened the offer to its citizens with several birth initiatives for hesitant couples, including an $8,900 award to families who produce a second child and a stipend of 40 percent of salary to women who leave work to become stay-at-home moms. One Russian province made novelty news worldwide with its Day of Conception on September 12, when residents of Ulyanovsk got time off work to “conceive a patriot” for the country. Prizes for successful delivery nine months later include refrigerators and cars. The theme is present enough in the popular consciousness that a Swedish underwear company cashed in on the anxiety with a provocative ad campaign featuring a cast of Nordic men wearing EU-type lapel pins, commanding Swedes to Fuck for the Future and Drop Your Pants or Drop Dead.
The nativist motivations for such campaigns move beyond the subliminal at times. Elizabeth Krause, an anthropologist and author of A Crisis of Births: Population Politics and Family-Making in Italy, tracked that country’s population efforts over the past decade and found politicians demanding more babies “to keep away the armadas of immigrants from the southern shores of the Mediterranean” and priests calling for a “Christian dike against the Muslim invasion of Italy.” The racial preferences behind Berlusconi’s “baby bonus” came into embarrassing relief when immigrant parents were accidentally sent checks for their offspring and then asked to return the money: the Italian government hadn’t meant to promote those births.
The American Christian right, increasingly seeking influence abroad, has recognized that this anxiety over shifting national identities creates fertile terrain for spreading its ideology of traditional sexual morality as a quick fix for a postmodern age.
Related: Chris Hedges has more on the “creeping Christian chauvinism [that] has infected our political and social discourse” and how “[t]he public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the [US] since the 9/11 attacks.”
15 responses so far ↓
fern hill // February 17, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Well, it’s sad to see this creeping into Europe, but there’s always been a strong streak of racism among the fetus fetishists in North America: ‘Too many of Them and not enough of Us are breeding.’
Daisy // February 18, 2008 at 5:10 pm
the “creeping Christian chauvinism [that] has infected our political and social discourse” and how “[t]he public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the [US] since the 9/11
attacks.”
Christianity appears more moderate and liberal (I speak as a Christian, or a slack one, in any event) since lefty Christians like myself, Bill Moyers, Jimmy Carter, et. al. are included in the discourse. Liberal Christians are invited to speak at the workshops and panels and such, like on C-Span. Muslim moderates and liberals are ignored. Thus, you have the media impression that “they” are the dangerous, extreme ones, since no one sees otherwise. It’s a calculated production of “who is a Muslim”–the skeptics, peaceniks, slackers just aren’t included. Only the unquestioningly devout, or fundies, rate inclusion. They would NEVER do that for Christianity–in fact, as the Huckabee people like to say, fundies are often EXCLUDED from these very same C-Span panels.
The media presents even-handed, liberal, level-headed Christians arguing with whacked out Muslims. You never see whacked out Christians arguing with level-headed Muslims, except, you know, Bush and Condoleezza. :P
Who benefits from this propaganda?
matttbastard // February 20, 2008 at 12:52 am
Daisy: re: who benefits, I’m more a-feared of good old fashioned plain-Jane fascism, minus the “Islamo” modifier:
Replace “Jews” with “Muslims” and you have the 21st century rabid right in a fucking nutshell (even the BNP has rebranded its bigotry to reflect the winds of change…)
bastard.logic // February 23, 2008 at 9:45 am
“The only reason to call that…a ‘demographic winter’ is if you’re overly focused on which babies are being born.”
by matttbastard
[youtube=]
Kathryn Joyce on anti-choicers, European xenophobia, and the “The Demographic Winter”.
More here and here.
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers
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Bob // February 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm
The author of the article has made clear that he doesn’t like the promotion of new births. But, besides that, he doesn’t give any idea of why he doesn’t like it. Incredibly poor article.
matttbastard // February 24, 2008 at 12:07 pm
The author of the preceding comment has made it clear that he apparently hasn’t read the article in question (hint: Kathryn Joyce is a she); furthermore, your argument is stuffed with straw. Way to shift the goalposts, Calvin.
FAIL.
Mike // February 27, 2008 at 4:11 pm
But.. the main argument - that there is a world-wide demographic depopulation crisis looming - is supported by the Population Statistical Division of the UN and almost all other demographic agencies - is undeniable.
The implosion is predicted to occur everywhere in the world, including the Third World. Even in India, of course, China and Japan, but even in South America and in urbanised Africa. There is a complex depopulation “engine” now at work in the economies, in the cultures, and in the “mindsets” of most peoples of the world, which is unstoppable, even with the best forseeable efforts by governments.
And it will have huge effects on every aspect of life, on a humanity which has got used to the 200 years of population expansion, in both the first and the third worlds.
Only those cultures which support large families will survive into the future. Muslim communities are the least susceptible to the implosion “engine” and that is borne out by the statistics. It is not fear-mongering to point out these facts.
Kurt9 // February 28, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Quite the contrary, Mike. The “big 3″ of the muslim middle east (Turkey, Iran, and Egypt) are either below replacement birthrates (the first two) or approaching it (Egypt). Even places like Jordan and Saudi Arabia are seeing their birthrates decline of late. All of North Africa is trending towards European levels as well.
However, the original poster is correct that this “demographic winter” is being promulgated by the Christian right for ideological reasons.
The declining birth rate is inevitable. One out of the box solution is SENS (strategically engineered negligible senescence), a.k.a. curing aging.
R.C. // March 10, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Let’s break it down:
True or False? Worldwide, birthrates are down, averaging at or below replacement level;
True or False? Societies with the lowest birthrates currently tend to be those with the most enlightened cultural norms and political precedents, and those with higher birthrates tend to be those with the least enlightened cultural norms and political precedents;
True or False? In any given European country, the persons with the most enlightened ideas about cultural norms and appropriate government policies are those with the lowest birthrates, and the persons with the least enlightened ideas about cultural norms and appropriate government policies are those with the highest birthrates (whether they’re immigrants or not makes no nevermind to me);
True or False? SENS (a cure for old age) does not yet exist;
True or False? There are negative economic consequences to increasing the proportion of elderly persons in your society’s population;
True or False? Successful political activism (whether toward enlightened or unenlightened policies) tends to require a large mass of energetically involved and emotionally invested persons, who are generally below 35 years of age;
I may be missing something, but it seems to me that if most or all of the propositions given above ARE true, then…we have a problem.
If the problem’s big enough, then I don’t care (much) if these facts are used in tendentious ways by neo-Nazis or Archbishops or media-scaremongers or fertility clinic operators or Babies ‘R’ Us or whomever.
I’m interested in the factuality of the issue.
It seems to me that, if the majority of the statements above are true, then the traditions of (relatively) enlightened social policies and governance may not last much longer. It will be hard to communicate democratic ideals to the next generation when most of the youngsters in that generation are raised by non-assimilated European immigrants with fundie notions of morality.
Or am I missing some critical point which makes all of this no big deal?
Walt // June 11, 2008 at 11:17 am
RC
You are so right. This crisis has nothing to do with and is not caused by (as Kathryn, Matt and others seem to suggest) moral values or nationalism or … It is just a fact that birth rates are below replacement levels, and no economy in history on the planet has or can grow while the population is declining. Older people don’t buy as much, and as a population gets older (the result of below replacement birth rate), the economy will slow and stop.
We need to stop crying christian conspiracy, and realize that the problem on the planet is not too many people, but too few. People aren’t the problem.
matttbastard // June 11, 2008 at 1:51 pm
So, immigration isn’t a viable solution? The only way to save our economy is to turn women into brood mares?
Uh huh.
steve // June 18, 2008 at 10:02 am
mattbastard…
Imigration delays the problem at best. At worst, the argument goes, immigration saps the developing world of it’s productivity (read “skilled workers”) to merely keep the developed world from backsliding. Call it population mercantilism.
The facts are startling. Take Russia - by Russia’s own government estimates, their population is declining by 700,000-800,000 annually. That’s like losing the entire population of San Franciso, every year. That’s not a small problem.
Prole // June 18, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Steve, actually it sounds like a great problem. What is it you don’t understand about finite resources?
Saul Wall // June 29, 2008 at 10:49 pm
The Christian versus Islam and immigration angles to this are red herrings. Even if this issue is being promoted by Christians or anti-immigration movements, the fact is that Islamic nations are going through the demographic transition too. The North African ones where Europe has traditionally attracted its immigrants from are well into the transition and those nations which are seeing population growth are only doing so out of the momentum of the children of their baby boom being born while their parents are still alive. Their mean population ages are rising.
There are still a few developing nations whose populations are still rising and whose total fertility rates are still high but those rates are dropping faster than European ones did.
North African nations like Morocco are seeing dropping unemployment rates along with the dropping fertility rates. That’s great in the short term but it means that, as earths total fertility rate starts to cross the replacement rate of roughly 2.1 kids per woman, population growth will stop and reverse. Nations, even underdeveloped ones will see aging populations becoming more dependent on fewer young workers and labour shortages will rise. China is already loosing its cheap labour benefits to Vietnam and Indochina will soon loose it to Africa. After that there is no more cheap labour and competition for immigrants to offset aging and shrinking populations becomes futile.
While I don’t worry about human extinction or the collapse of civilization or anything, we could be in for some rough economic times as we adjust to saturated markets with fewer consumers and labour shortages for both skilled and then unskilled jobs.
We had better get busy designing robots and developing AI if we want health services and adequate housing and infrastructure in the future.
sg // July 8, 2008 at 11:32 am
The current US birthrate is 2.0 and that includes 19% of women who at age 45 had no children according to the US census.
Such demographics are consistent with a stable population and hardly mean that women are required to be brood mares.
A non sectarian family friendly culture where women aren’t pressured to have fewer children than they want is all that is required.
That may not be so easy when the trend is teaching young people that careers are the most important thing in life and that family is not.
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