Whiskey,

While I don’t always agree with your analysis, it is interesting to consider your diagnosis as to the lack of he-men with regard to China. China has a real problem with an overabundance of men. How they deal with that will be very interesting. There is sufficient cultural difference that our popular culture is a buffet for them where they can sample what they like, it’s not the whole meal the way it is here. I wonder how they will address their bubble of gender imbalance.

Matt Beck,

Well-stated, sir. In addition to being the end of a century (I would put the beginning of the last decade at 9/11/01), it is also the end of a generation as the Boomer phase out of work and into retirement. That will have some significant effects as well in terms of dictating what amounts to common thought or conventional wisdom. The Yuppies of 1980 are now close to or hitting retirement, and the folks born in 1949, who turned 18 in time for the Summer of Love, are even closer to getting their first SSI check and Medicare EOB. Their like is passing from the workplace, if not yet the world, and their experiences and mindset along with it. BHO is a child of the 1960s but without the experiences of the 1960s as an adult.

At least George McGovern had the experience of war to give him a basis for his antiwar views. BHO is a McGovern liberal without any counterbalance, he is liberal because he has been raised to be and educated to be so. Even McGovern had some social programs that were well-intentioned but somewhat conservative by today’s standards, BHO is just a doctrinaire liberal. His doubling-down on healthcare speaks of an ideological commitment in the face of impeding electoral losses of the kind that would make a Japanese infantry officer of WWII blush. He has lost sight of his goal, yet is redoubling his efforts. That’s the kind of action you might expect from a second-generation ideologue removed from the direct experiences from which his chosen viewpoint arose. It’s very pure, in a way, being untainted by practical considerations or actual experience. I find that a lot more threatening.

WRT Christianity, if child-bearing is a statement on hope for the future, the Christians (particularly the evangelicals) are among the more hopeful segments of the population, along with Mormons and Hispanics. Organizations like QuiverFull, while somewhat extremist in pursuit of fertility, are bound to have a demographic impact down the road.

My personal favorite African mission: Malo Go Kujilana. There are more Christians in Africa than in the US.