Demography, global and local. A shopping trip.

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Here's a picture of our well spaded garden, including a pretty girl because they make photos irresistible.

I entered into correspondence with Charles Hugh Smith a decade ago after reviewing a couple of his books on Amazon. He is my kind of author – more interested in exploring and expressing ideas than in getting rich by pandering to any audience. His website features pictures of a self-assured fellow living comfortably in Hawaii where he can dedicate himself to his writing.

Zerohedge and many other sites link to his oftwominds blog.  This recent piece is about demographics in general. The whole developed world is headed off a demographic cliff. We are not having enough children to sustain ourselves, and the people who are having children are often not competent enough to support themselves. It is not going to be pretty.

The linked article above contains a second link, this one to Ed West who addresses the question of Russia. It is absurd for Russia, with a dwindling and aging population, to start a war in Ukraine. Russia does not need any of Ukraine's resources, certainly not more land. The last thing the country needs is to send half its rising generation off to die in a needless war, and thereby force the more productive half to seek refuge outside the country.

Subscriber Mark has long recommended works by global thinker Peter Ziehan.  While I don't agree with all of Ziehan's answers, he certainly asks the right questions. Here is his video entitled How Russia will Die. He also mentions Ukraine. In addition to being involved in this pointless and destructive war, both countries share several negative demographic trends.

Of course it is not only our countries that are going downhill. Edward Slavsquat, writing from Moscow, devotes some of the most insightful pieces to China. Here is a very long one on the absurdity and the destructiveness of the Covid lockdown of 25 million people underway in Shanghai. The way China has been treating its own population would hardly seem to encourage them to have children. And this piece only addresses lockdowns. The "vaccines" don't work any better in China than any place else. They kill Chinese and make them sterile just as they do everywhere. And the Chinese lie just as blatantly as Russia and our own governments.

The future of the world may be a question of the last man standing. When the supposedly smart countries have all died of their own catastrophically stupid policies, who will be left? Only the countries that were too stupid to imagine that they were that smart to begin with.

Chasing Charles Hugh Smith's links, I came across the book Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers, which I am now reading. Demography is destiny. Author Paul Morland, after making all of the appropriate caveats, sets forth his guess as to what's going to happen to world populations.

These authors are interested in the future of populations. I am interested in the future of one family. There is a big difference. There have been significant population collapses as civilizations collapsed throughout history. Yet, some people have always survived. My interest is in having my children be among those people. My question is how to prepare them for what is coming.

My friend of half a century Rob offers this observation: "Most countries experience a rise in population during wars & other life threatening disasters as if the population wants to be sure that their genes pass on to another generation.  The US population rose significantly during WW II.  Bangladesh's birthrate explodes during flood-famines then returns to normal when the threat eases.  Keep your eyes on the numbers there." In other words, Ukraine might bounce back.

Ed Dutton, four of whose books I have reviewed for Amazon, has a systematic analysis and projection that jibes with Rob's. In his upcoming book "The Past Is a Future Country" he will go into how the progressive, woke agenda contains the seeds of its own destruction. Among other things, leftists are simply not reproducing themselves. The people who are and will be having children are conservative, community oriented and religious. They tend to live in societies of people like themselves.

It is delightful how much my children take after me. I am sure it is due in no small part to the fact we spent so much time together. After I fed them breakfast, we set off at 9:45 this morning with a triple mission: to keep the kids out of mom's hair for a couple of hours, to see how well public transportation had come back, and to do a little shopping.

The bus into town is running only hourly, but it arrived on time. When we asked about the return trip, bus driver said there would be nothing until after 12:00. Although there is not a published schedule, I had noticed that the regional elektrishka trains were running hourly throughout the day. Since it passed through our station at 11:30, I reckoned that we should be able to catch it at about 11:15.

Eddie was very helpful with our shopping. As I carried the backpack, with Marianna on my shoulders, Eddie carried a Trader Joe's shopping bag and the money as we went from shop to shop. The cheese guy had blue cheese, the dairy products lady had our favorite butter once again, and the bakery had just reopened. We had bought everything we needed by 10:45. Glad to have time to spare, we went to the train station.

There was a lot to carry: a backpack and the Trader Joe's bag, approximately 20 pounds apiece, and a 25 pound baby. Eddie said he would handle the Trader Joe's bag all by himself. I told him I could free a hand if need be, but he assured me that he needs to grow up to be a man and he would do it alone. And dammed if 80 pound Eddie didn't carry that 20 pound bag for a mile.

The train was about 20 minutes late. This gave the kids time to have a long conversation with the friendly old lady and then the young guy who shared the bench with us. These salt of the earth types, who would not have had the interest or the means to bug out to Poland, are competent, engaging, and delighted with children. I am proud that my kids enter so easily into conversation with new acquaintances. Proud of myself that I am understanding Ukrainian well enough to follow the gist of the conversation.

We accomplished our three objectives for the day. But, as you can appreciate, I am accomplishing a larger objective. I am raising a son to be like me. Having failed so abysmally with my first makes it all the more sweet. I would advise fathers that you have to have faith in yourself. Assert yourself against women, experts and institutions that would question your judgment, and recognize that raising your kids must be your highest priority.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the men are reveling in their strength, the good-looking woman reveled in a couple of hours of peace and quiet, and the children really enjoyed being with daddy.

Graham