Fifty years ago, William F. Buckley pledged to stand athwart history yelling “Stop!” But what if history changed direction? What if the left, not the right, had to push against the tide of history itself? The election in Iraq may presage such a change. But the president’s plan to reform Social Security could be the biggest tip-off of history’s changing direction. The world is facing a potential demographic crisis. Economic growth may solve the problem. Yet failing that, the demographic revolution we are only now waking up to could easily transform American society. One possible implication of the new demographics is a major cultural shift toward conservatism. Another possibility is a strange new eugenic regime–at the extreme, perhaps the development of a breeder class and/or the large scale use of artificial wombs. I explore the cultural implications of world-wide population decline in my new piece for Policy Review, “Demographics and the Culture War.”

If you don’t believe that the coming demographic challenge is as deep as I claim in my new Policy Review piece, have a look at the big-picture article by Jonathan Weisman in today’s Washington Post. Note the Brookings Institution scholar who warns the Democrats that their “no crisis” claims will probably backfire. The fact is, we need to fix Social Security because it is the easiest way to begin get at a vastly larger economic challenge brought on by the new demographics. Bold as the president’s plan may seem, it is only the beginning of the changes we will likely soon be facing.