Andrew: You appear to be implying that European cultural suicide is a good thing. I know it’s not what you mean, but you are incorrect in dismissing Europe’s decline.

The world’s birth rates, even if they come down slightly, look nothing like Europe’s, which clearly demonstrate a decline. Many European nations are losing population from year to year, and they aren’t even suffering from plagues. They have negative birth-rates. The day is coming fast when there won’t be any Italians or Spaniards. In Russia, the problem is far more acute because of the environmental mess the Soviets left behind.

Yes, part of it has to do with “modernity” — people marry later, etc. (I suppose that I am partly responsible for dragging down American birth-rate because I have no offspring at age 30.) But it is also unquestionably tied to the popularization of abortion and contraception. That is why I tie it in to Europe’s crisis of faith, because it is tied in.