The Decline of Western Civilization....Using a Horse Analogy???
- Fred
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
A few days ago, I woke in the middle of the night, sweating, nearly paralyzed from nightmares. Somewhere in the gray area between consciousness and unconsciousness, I turned to my phone as a 4 a.m. distraction. I am still not sure how much of the following story was real.
A well spoken man started: In the year 1900, there were about 20 million horses in America. The population of the United States was around 75 million. Why so many horses? Traveling by either horse, or horse drawn carriage, was one of the primary means of transportation in the United States of America. Every American had a friend or a family member that owned a horse. Manifest Destiny could not have been realized without the brave and sturdy equine.
But then the horseless carriage came along, aka The Automobile, and the horse population cratered.125 years later, the human population exploded to 340 million while the mighty horse numbers dwindled to around 3 million.
Do you personally know someone who owns a horse? Horses still exist, there was no horse apocalypse, their numbers simply fell away with time.
Other than the Amish, who else still uses horses for manual labor or transportation in the modern age? Owning a horse, today, is a luxury for the rich or for those citizens that simply love horses.
A hundred and twenty five years ago, many couples had a half a dozen kids. Some had large families based on religion, but for numerous rural Americans, many children were used as free labor on their farms regardless of their faith. In the year 1900, children, as much as horses, were necessities.
As abortion rates soar (in most states), children are now seen as a hurdle to a happy and successful life. As God is de-emphasized in society, many American Citizens don't focus on the future or the past, they are self-absorbed and tied to the now. The concept of self-sacrifice for the next generation seems like a foreign notion, acknowledging the past is passé.
How many times have you heard the phrase "can we afford to have kids?" A century ago, Americans asked "how can we NOT afford to have kids?"
If you speak to someone in the younger generation now, they talk about the financial burdens of raising a child. Now some women speak of their love of children, but the maternal instinct seems lost on young females. Many women describe their love of children as equal to the love of a dog, cat,......or horse.
In America, has the child become the ultimate luxury? An unintended consequence of First World indulgences? On a long enough timeline, that guarantees the survival of the mindset of a select few of the Rich, not necessarily the homosapien species as a whole.
When you equate a child to a horse, society is doomed.
Still groggy, I thought to myself, "that's the stupidest analogy I have ever heard," and fell back asleep.
When I got up in the morning, for good, about 4 hours later, I felt the exact opposite, I believed that God himself had shared with me an eternal truth about the year 2026.
As I type away on my keyboard, I cannot remember which parts were real, imagined, or filled in.
And with that, I end with this antidote. After my second child was born, I decided to have a vasectomy. My wife was pissed, but we were struggling financially. When I explained the decision to my parents, I flippantly said, "I did my part, I propagated the species."
Like I had done the very bare minimum for society.
Addendum, 1 Day Later: