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How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) (2014)

by David P. Goldman(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1596982802 (ISBN13: 9781596982802)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Not Avail

review 1: Interesting figures. The basic theme of this book is the plunging fertility rates in many countries across the globe and how this is tied to a loss of faith. The author argues that countries lose the "will to live" when they see their culture unable to advance, which normally happens when they turn from religion but cannot replace it with anything enduring. At that point, fertility rates drop and the culture goes into a demographic slide. He says many countries in Europe have already reached the point of no return; that is, even with an (unlikely) upturn in fertility rates, these countries cannot produce enough children to avoid economic disaster.This economic disaster is the inability of a small number of young (working) people to support a huge population of retired peop... morele. Many of Europe's economies will not be able to care for its elders. This is an issue debated heavily in the United States today with regard to Social Security, even though the US is one of the few countries that has not fallen into the demographic death spiral.The United States remains a country of vibrant faith. This fact correlates with a fertility rate in the US that remains above the replacement rate. The reason for this survival is described as being due to America's having been built on an ideal that sees each person having worth in the eyes of a higher power. Although Europe was Christian for centuries, coming out of the Middle Ages nations formed in an attempt to abrogate the Church's power; its leaders wanted to redefine themselves as the Chosen People taking the Promised Land, replacing the Jews in Israel. One can certainly see this in the glaring but not isolated examples Henry VIII's establishment of the Church of England and the supposedly divine "Sun King" in France. In the 18th and following centuries, the mantle of religion was discarded while rabid nationalism continued. All the while, people could not sustain hope as the nations of Europe repeatedly destroyed each other and even themselves. Even before the World Wars of the 20th century, the Thirty Years war killed a horrifying percentage of people across the continent. Hence, fertility has been sliding in Europe for years.Surprisingly, the same scenario is recently playing out in the Middle East. I recall when I was younger, Yassar Arafat made some statement to the effect that the Arab womb was his greatest weapon. However, in the economic decline and political instability of the radical Muslim regimes across Africa and Asia, hope disappeared completely. In the rise of Arafat, the Ayatollah in Iran, and the like, so too came suicide bombers. The Muslim world embraced the notion that they has to sacrifice themselves just to fight the last fight; they had lost all hope.The author talks of the Muslim belief that each social structure is a miniature of the larger structure. This means that a man is the absolute ruler in his household, which may explain tolerance for wife beatings and mercy or honor killings. No one has, like in the Christian world, an appear directly to God. Without the Jewish notion of Covenant or the Christian hope in Jesus Christ, the Muslim God is too absolutely great to care for an individual.Silently, while the bombings made news across the world, the Middle East has experienced in the last two or three decades the sharpest decline in fertility rates recorded in recent history. The subsequent economic impacts will destroy the already fragile economies in these countries. The Muslim world appears to be dying faster than everyone else. The only country in the Middle East defying these trends is, as one would expect if one believes this thesis, Israel, which like the US maintains its faith and has seen a recent uptick in its fertility rates.A though-provoking book whose veracity will not be proven out for decades to come.
review 2: Do I believe the authors theory that civilizations die because people stop having children? No, he argues that a sense of despair about your culture or religion results in families no longer making the commitment to raise children and the presence of an inverted pyramid in population distribution leads to the collapse of civilization. Hard to swallow. Worth the read to at least challenge your own conception of how the world works and what the future holds. less

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