A very interesting question, which has surfaced in one or two places in the
blogosphere, is whether there is any connection between the reluctance of
Europeans to fight against the enemies of their civilization, and their
imploding birth rates.
The pseudonymous Spengler, for example, writing in Asia Times Online notes that:
“The country’s [i.e. Spain’s] fertility rate of 1.12 live births per female
is the lowest in the world.”
And comments:
“Countries too lazy to produce their next generation will not fight. Who
will lay down his life for future generations when the future generations
simply will not be there?”
The demographic collapse of the European nations is the great phenomenon of
our era, and keys in to many of the problems we discuss daily here at NRO –
immigration, for instance. The old Catholic nations (Spain, Portugal,
Italy, Ireland not far behind) seem to be taking the lead; though Latvia –
which I believe is mostly Lutheran — also offers a dramatic example)