Let us procreate!
A disturbing thought came into my mind last night when I was watching Hatch with my better half. American movies almost always feature a happy end while European movies, with the exception of the odd comedy, seldom do. American movies make you want to go out and live your life to the full, win, laugh or kick ass. In contrast, the European movies feature people immersed into their routines pondering about their meaningless lives. The European movies make you want to do nothing.
Now, I know this observation is highly subjective and I also know there are many entertaining European movies bursting with life. However, considering how gloomy an average European movie is in comparison with the works coming from across the Atlantic I think I’m quite right to question the European biological will to live. It may be tempting to dismiss such a fundamental objection based on a subjective observation of something relatively unrelated. It is also easy to dismiss American movies as shallow, factually incorrect and intellectually unchallenging but that would be entirely beside the point. To further elaborate on the issue let us have a look at the statistics.
Here you can find a comparison of population growth of developed countries (data for USA 0.92% and Spain 0.15% should be added). It is embarrassing for the Europeans. Things aren’t much better when one considers the total fertility rates either. North America averaged 2.0 babies born to women during their reproductive years; USA had a total of 2.1 (1.9 when baby-booming Latinos and African Americans are excluded) while the EU-15 managed 1.5. It is considered that a total fertility rate of 2.1 is required merely to replace the population. So it is clear that Europe is slowly heading towards a demise should the trend continue. But that is nothing new to you.
There has been a lot of discussion about the troublesome demographic of the ageing continent, but none of them really touched the collective spirit of the continental Europe. The fashionable wisdom says that the consumerism and material wealth are to blame for our lack of procreation. That could be so up to an extent. But how is that the mother of consumerism - the wealthy USA still manage to procreate faster than self-righteously anti-materialistic Europeans? How is that the wealthy Ireland and Luxembourg top the European population growth chart?
The zealots on the left are always quick to blame the money for every conceivable problem. They have created this fashionable wisdom and once more diverted the discussion from the real issue – the rising pessimism in Europe. How to reverse the trend is open for discussion. Once the Europeans start filming happy ends I bet the population statistics will improve. Until then the continent will continue to fade away immersed in its dreams of the past glory and absorbed with delusions about its superiority.
Now, I know this observation is highly subjective and I also know there are many entertaining European movies bursting with life. However, considering how gloomy an average European movie is in comparison with the works coming from across the Atlantic I think I’m quite right to question the European biological will to live. It may be tempting to dismiss such a fundamental objection based on a subjective observation of something relatively unrelated. It is also easy to dismiss American movies as shallow, factually incorrect and intellectually unchallenging but that would be entirely beside the point. To further elaborate on the issue let us have a look at the statistics.
Here you can find a comparison of population growth of developed countries (data for USA 0.92% and Spain 0.15% should be added). It is embarrassing for the Europeans. Things aren’t much better when one considers the total fertility rates either. North America averaged 2.0 babies born to women during their reproductive years; USA had a total of 2.1 (1.9 when baby-booming Latinos and African Americans are excluded) while the EU-15 managed 1.5. It is considered that a total fertility rate of 2.1 is required merely to replace the population. So it is clear that Europe is slowly heading towards a demise should the trend continue. But that is nothing new to you.
There has been a lot of discussion about the troublesome demographic of the ageing continent, but none of them really touched the collective spirit of the continental Europe. The fashionable wisdom says that the consumerism and material wealth are to blame for our lack of procreation. That could be so up to an extent. But how is that the mother of consumerism - the wealthy USA still manage to procreate faster than self-righteously anti-materialistic Europeans? How is that the wealthy Ireland and Luxembourg top the European population growth chart?
The zealots on the left are always quick to blame the money for every conceivable problem. They have created this fashionable wisdom and once more diverted the discussion from the real issue – the rising pessimism in Europe. How to reverse the trend is open for discussion. Once the Europeans start filming happy ends I bet the population statistics will improve. Until then the continent will continue to fade away immersed in its dreams of the past glory and absorbed with delusions about its superiority.
posted by Domenico at 4:37 PM
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