I think some governments today are trying to do the necessary change of discourse: going back to traditional ways, valuing the family, women's proud work of giving birth to the next generation, and so forth. I'm waiting with interest to see if they have any success or not. So far it doesn't look very impressive, but maybe it's too early.…
I think some governments today are trying to do the necessary change of discourse: going back to traditional ways, valuing the family, women's proud work of giving birth to the next generation, and so forth. I'm waiting with interest to see if they have any success or not. So far it doesn't look very impressive, but maybe it's too early. One of these places is China, their birth rate keeps dropping.
I worry that competition is part of human nature and that resource competition is the most straightforward kind. It stayed intact all through the Soviet Union, which really was meant to get rid of it. And having children in our time is quite bad for resource competition, as you say. Can we find good examples of competition that was artificially but successfully introduced by governments, schools, media or suchlike?
>>Can we find good examples of competition that was artificially but successfully introduced by governments, schools, media or suchlike?
Hm...Eurovision song contest? How about school as such? Isn't that a highly artificial, government-introduced competition?
Thinking about it, it should be much easier to intruduce a competition in having children compared to a competition in sitting on a chair taking in rather arbitrary information. All over the world, people are happy over and proud of their well-fed, healthy and happy children. It takes quite a bit of cultural evolution to make people anxious and ashamed instead. It is probably enough just to ease some of that cultural pressure against pride over children, and the kind of fertility competition that was so ubiquitous just a few generations ago will resume.
I think some governments today are trying to do the necessary change of discourse: going back to traditional ways, valuing the family, women's proud work of giving birth to the next generation, and so forth. I'm waiting with interest to see if they have any success or not. So far it doesn't look very impressive, but maybe it's too early. One of these places is China, their birth rate keeps dropping.
I worry that competition is part of human nature and that resource competition is the most straightforward kind. It stayed intact all through the Soviet Union, which really was meant to get rid of it. And having children in our time is quite bad for resource competition, as you say. Can we find good examples of competition that was artificially but successfully introduced by governments, schools, media or suchlike?
>>Can we find good examples of competition that was artificially but successfully introduced by governments, schools, media or suchlike?
Hm...Eurovision song contest? How about school as such? Isn't that a highly artificial, government-introduced competition?
Thinking about it, it should be much easier to intruduce a competition in having children compared to a competition in sitting on a chair taking in rather arbitrary information. All over the world, people are happy over and proud of their well-fed, healthy and happy children. It takes quite a bit of cultural evolution to make people anxious and ashamed instead. It is probably enough just to ease some of that cultural pressure against pride over children, and the kind of fertility competition that was so ubiquitous just a few generations ago will resume.