Thanks to Nicol Sorenson-Legakis for bringing this article to my notice:
Sorry, but I can’t see this is a good trend.
In fact, I regard it as portending disaster.
The dissolution of the social ties that bind us; the weakening of the family (which the late Christopher Lasch, a brilliant social commentator who is very much missed these days, perceptively called “a haven in a heartless world”); the recreation of humans as social atoms, constantly combining and recombining in transient and unstable relationships; the effective reduction of such relationships to negotiable contracts — these are deeply worrisome things.
But there’s more. As I noted in a column that I wrote nearly two years ago, Mary Eberstadt makes an intriguing argument that the decline of the family is closely and causally linked with the seeming decline in religious belief (or religious affiliation) that’s being trumpeted with such enthusiasm in certain circles.
This is uncharted territory for human societies. I doubt that the experiment will end well.
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