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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023

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People are deeply hostile to the reality, no matter who you are, that fulfilment and happiness and ‘living a worthwhile life’ essentially come down to a very simple recipe.

Marry young(ish) to someone of good temperament, have a reasonable number of children (three or more), work a job you can somewhat stand, have some kind of spiritual life. Above all, tend to a dense circle of friends and family who you trust and who trust you, who live nearby and who you see often. Save a little money if you can. Try to do good by those who care about you.

This advice is proven over countless generations. It applies to almost all people, everywhere in the world. It is attainable for everyone in the global middle class and above, which is everyone here and certainly everyone writing political commentary on the internet.

But it’s also kind of scary, because if it’s that easy to be happy and fulfilled despite living in a decadent, empty, atomized, soulless, blah blah blah modern hellscape (etc etc), then why aren’t you doing it? Masturbation about joining Wagner or the Foreign Legion or fighting a war against China or leading The Revolution is much more interesting, because the very fact that these things are unlikely to happen means that they confer no obligation or even pressure to improve.

The fact that the recipe for happiness is so easy is precisely what makes it so terrifying, because it means failure to achieve it is usually our own fault.

Marry young(ish) to someone of good temperament, have a reasonable number of children (three or more), work a job you can somewhat stand, have some kind of spiritual life. Above all, tend to a dense circle of friends and family who you trust and who trust you, who live nearby and who you see often. Save a little money if you can. Try to do good by those who care about you.

Do you apply this to women as well?

EDIT: based on 2rafa's past comments about gender differences and the Red Pill that I've read here and on the old subreddit, I'm not convinced that she actually thinks that marrying young and having 3-4 children* is the recipe for fulfilment and happiness for young single women. On the other hand, I can totally see why she'd give that advice to this online community here, which is mostly composed of men. In other words, I can understand why she'd argue that this is sound advice for single men who want to fulfill their male sexual imperative in a way that benefits them long-term.

*Just to point out one thing: having three or more healthy children as a woman implies in the context of current society that you enter a long-term relationship with your future husband at 18-20 years of age and have your first child 2-4 years later, when you're convinced that the relationship is stable enough. Who would actually even give teenage girls such advice openly these days?

Isn't it women birthing and then caring for the three or more children?

Yes, but that's not my point. See the edit.

My mother had three children after thirty (none via ivf). I don’t think people need to be married at 20 for it to happen.

On average, 90% of a woman's eggs perish by the age of 30. As far as I know, this is a biological fact. It'd be dishonest to advise young women to "marry young(ish) to someone of good temperament, have a reasonable number of children (three or more)" and then imply that they can wait until age 30 to start having children. In most cases, this won't bring the desired result i.e. three or more healthy children.

Yes, but I think that was @2rafa point a bit with;

People are deeply hostile to the reality

Find a partner, settle down, marry is the advice that teenagers should be getting from secular society.

It can be done by an older woman, we have four children 2 years apart. My wife was 41 for the last. She was 26 when we married.

I think 22 - 24 and pregnant, even 16 and pregnant is better than 40 and no children.