Must…break…inertia…so I lifted a comment I made at Bonald’s Throne and Altar. (My first, maybe? I forget.)
Can anyone explain this mystery to me?
God to Arab Muslim: Strap a bomb to your chest and blow yourself up in a crowded space.
Arab Muslim: God is great!
God to Catholic couple: Have unsterilized sex and have lots of cute babies.
Catholic couple: But, but, but….our freedom!!!
Am I just fooled by (a particular strand of) Muslim devoutness being so much more spectacular than Catholic devoutness? But there are an awful lot of young Muslims who, although not signing up for suicide missions, are fired up over the same causes. The population of Catholics of suicide-bomber-age who are fired up for fighting the Church’s fights and making babies seems to be just nonexistent.
In response to him (and Nick B. Steve’s comment that Bonald was comparing the most devout Muslims to the widest group of Roman Catholics) I wrote the following…
In comparing would-be Muslim bombers with would-be Christian parents there are extreme differences in soteriology, and differences in targets.
According to my formerly Muslim step-father: Islam teaches that each person is judged and weighed according to their earthly deeds. Unlike Christianity, this measurement is not thrown out on account of Jesus’s grace extended to us (I’m simplifying, here.) who are in communion with Him.The only sure way to avoid being found unworthy is to die in jihad.
What jihadi clerics do then is prey upon those Muslims who have been, or currently are, the most Westernized; the most decadent; etc. Went to a stripclub and snorted cocaine of a stripper? My son, only death in jihad can outweigh that. You’ll notice that the facts surrounding who blew up what, where they were raised, how much money their family had, etc. supports this.
In contrast, virtually all Christians are called to marriage and procreation. What is not rare is often not valued, so marriage and children seem to many like humdrum aspects of Christianity; such as candles or modest clothes. Like those things: Marriage and children aren’t even peculiar to Christians alone. It’s a case of Christians starving to death in the middle of an supermarket because supermarkets are bourgie, yo.
We’re all hipsters, now.
Things that We have Heard and Known 
So basically, you can sell large families by saying that having a large family these days is counter-cultural and “edgy.” You know, the kind of thing that people who want to stand apart do…
I think this may be a poor comparison. First, I’m leery of applying the economic principle of scarcity to religion (even if I admit it appears to work…who is to argue with, “narrow is the road”). Second, I think this may be an apples and oranges comparison. I tend to believe women are terrified of children. And I mean terrified as in facing a horror movie villain alone terrified.
Yes donel I would say you can sell large families that way. You can sell several things that way. Attend a home school …..gathering/convention/consortium/swap-meet/whatchamacallit near a mid sized or larger city and you find hipster motivations, edginess-not to be confused with trendiness- (or maybe it is trendiness but trendiness would be vehemently denied and whatever activity it was would be jettisoned instantly if it started to seem trendy vs. edgy)
Lots of large families defined by hipster values.
Related, but very tangential, reading a Fox headline this morning that says millennials won’t eat cereal because it is too inconvenient. The story was lifted from a NYT article about cereals. In it a survey was cited where 40% of the respondents said cereal for breakfast was a no go because it required too much clean up.
It thinly ties to the point above when in the NYT piece the writer claims it will be millennials who revive cereal sales, but, the writer states, it will be tough for cereal makers to get in on the action because
I will hold that quote back to whip out the next time some late 30’s know it all makes a crack about how stupid boomers are. Maybe the math statement…. stupid > impressionable?
As a father of a large family (9th on the way!) I can tell you that large families are most definitely counter-cultural. People treat us like freaks everywhere our 12-passenger Mercedes Sprinter Van pulls up and my eight kids, pregnant wife and I pour out.
Still, I don’t see this appealing to hipsters for the following reasons.
1. You can’t support a family of 11 on a hipster’s typical salary.
2. You definitely can’t afford to live in a hipster-approved neighborhood when you have 9 kids.
3. Try squeezing 9 kids into a Prius.
4. Forget eating “organic”, “locavore” fare.
5. It’s just too much work.
As for Muslim suicide bombers, Cane has a point. Death during Jihad really is the ONLY guaranteed way to reach paradise in Muslim theology. There is no assurance of salvation – for anyone – in Islam outside death during Jihad.
There is also the issue of honor. An Army study conducted on captured suicide bombers determined that most of them are younger sons of 2nd, 3rd or 4th wives. In polygamist cultures, the first son receives the bulk of the parents’ support, because it’s his responsibility to care for the parents in their old age. Later sons receive whatever support is left over, which means younger sons of later wives often receive no support at all.
With no support from family, those younger sons have no opportunity to marry and raise their own families, and therefore no way to earn honor. Furthermore, polygamy guarantees that older, wealthier men acquire multiple wives, leaving fewer women for younger, less wealthy men. How does a young man with no family support earn honor under those conditions? Jihad.
It’s also why Islamic culture requires conquest. Horny young men need to get their rocks off somehow, and one way to do that is by conquering neighboring countries and taking their women as sex slaves.
But Islamic terrorists take the honor motivation even further. They film themselves raping young men, then threaten to release the videos unless the young men agree to conduct a suicide bombing.
Their depths of evil are unfathomable.
@Oscar
That’s why they always have bloody borders. Jihad is never ending and abating unless polygamy becomes less and less common in their circles.
Al Nusra and ISIS may have all their fighters be killed. But the next generation under a new name will repeat the same process all over again.
@ infowarrior1 says:
February 28, 2016 at 3:29 am
Exactly. Of course, that means all who live in lands that border them should be perpetually prepared for the fight (as the Israelis are), not shrink away from it.
@Oscar
Even more important is to infiltrate and attack them memetically. Engaging them on the battlefield only sharpens them for the next fight.
Leftism seems to be taking their birthrates down quite a bit as a good example.