But I don't think this process is some sort of conspiracy wrought from on high by a cabal of conspirators as the essayist implies.
What we are seeing unfold is what, unfortunately, a growing majority want to see happen.
People by and large like it that the government now acts as a middleman between parents and their children when it comes to retirement. The children pay their social security taxes, the government receives the taxes and doles them out as payments. The parents and children are no longer tied together monetarily. Lots of people think this has made relationships healthier because they are no longer based on money. Parents don't have to pretend to like their children in order to afford a place to stay and food to eat.
Making divorce easier at first seemed to have mostly good effects. There were cases where men went off to other cities to find work and not return for years. Their wives could improve their lives and those of their children if they could divorce their husbands and marry anew. But then of course that slowly morphed into people getting married by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas on a Friday night, and divorced the following Sunday at a Justice of the Peace in Tijuana.
There was a time when you absolutely, positively had to be married with children if you hoped to rise within the corporate hierarchy. Single men were just not trusted. So there was a time when the so-called powers that be strongly encouraged family formation even if they didn't care about the religious traditions or the concept of freedom of association.
Also, it seems that marriage and weddings are good for business. Why would the elites want to stifle marriage when it generates so much spending on weddings, receptions, bachelor & bachelorette parties, houses, furnishings, infant & childrens' products, college educations, etc.?
Also, will US citizens ever give up the right of spouses not to testify against one another?
Also, what about all those countries that are now bending over backward to provide all sorts of financial incentives so that their women give birth? Countries like France and Sweden provide paid family leave to try and get their birthrates above replacement.
I think there are myriad forces acting in different ways. Marriage will be weakened, but not eliminated. The Christian perspective will have a smaller and smaller influence on the preponderance and nature of marriage.
Over the very long term, Christianity may make a comeback due to most of the children being born to Christians, and not so many being born to Atheists and Agnostics, but that's way off in the future.
In the short run we will see acceptance of polygamy. There will be a constant battle between those who believe families should have more autonomy and those who believe otherwise. Good cases will be made for both sides of the debate, and some of those cases on both sides will be made by Christians and non-Christians. Over time, though, I do believe that those who favor less autonomy will win most of the battles.
And if parents can't to some extent tell their kids what to do, and if their kids end up having more power over their parents by threatening to call in the Feds whenever they don't get their way, then fewer and fewer people are going to want to have children.
Whether the government decides it needs more warm bodies to keep Social Security afloat and creates massive orphanages a la Brave New World is something to watch for. But again, that's way off in the future in my opinion.
“Marriage has been on a downward spiral ever since divorce became relatively easy.”
I think it more likely started downhill when 1) children were no longer a goal, and 2) divorce, which had been available and widespread, became punitive to men; there was little incentive for men to enter a binding, permanent contract if they could end up subsidizing a new alpha male in their former home whenever their wives got bored.
“Christianity may make a comeback due to most of the children being born to Christians, and not so many being born to Atheists and Agnostics, but that’s way off in the future.”
What are the Hispanics filling this country? Whatever kind of Christians they are, they believe in families and are inheriting the western hemisphere. A comeback for European Christians may be way off in the future, but in the meantime we have no shortage of Christian children here.
All this nonsense started with the rebellion of the young generation in the 1960s, where the enemy was defined as older (generally married) people. That, and a post-WWII economy that allowed parents to spoil their children, and ship them off to college where their first adult years are spent drinking, doing drugs and sleeping with one another. Those years of unsupervised, outside-financed partying are typically looked at as the best times of people’s lives.
The idea of sending 18yo children away to live amongst other hormone-raging and careless teenagers is preposterous. I’m looking into having my kids commute to one of the many good colleges near where I live and to take advantage of any online courses offered. Saves money, avoids the wasted time in the college social environment where there is far too much downtime.
I write this an an Ivy League grad who witnessed the destruction of many a bright student’s potential in moments of clarity between drinks and hits. But I came from a solid family.