Sober Perspectives
An idealist might prefer the term callous for sober, but I don’t mind contemplating whether some writers’ colder observations are in line with reality. Here are three very different articles that I read as calling into question the majority positions of idealism in love and life.
Roissy in DC pulls no punches in explaining why he believes it’s better to stop looking for the best person you can get and instead look for the person whose value matches the value you bring to the relationship. A sample:
Happiness in love rests in large part on your ability to get past your ego and see yourself for who you truly are and how much you actually bring to the table. It’s a soul-wrenching process of self-examination that sometimes only happens after years of reality have pounded into you the fact of your true worth. If you don’t like your market value, then do what you can to raise it. Otherwise, keep tilting at windmills.
Roosh V, even more bluntly, asserts that women who want a family may want to work past their Sex in the City phase a few years earlier. Here’s an excerpt that ought to inspire you to read the entire post:
It’s easy to make fun of the current generation of spinsters, but I do feel bad for them because there was no way for them to know that their lifestyle would prove to be so detrimental to forming a family. But we’ve observed and studied them and they’ve been written about in the mainstream media enough to the point where there are no excuses for not avoiding their fate. If you are a girl under the age of 25, I will have no sympathy for you in the next decade when you whine to me that you’ve always wanted a family but for whatever reason couldn’t find a man. It starts now.
And here’s a third article, via Instapundit, on the decline of motherhood in Canada. Of the three, this is clearly the odd link out, but I wanted to mention it and this is as good a place as any. The author’s basic point is that lifestyle choices, for better or worse, have unintended consequences on reproduction — a subject that Grey’s Anatomy recently broached in a special 2-hour episode, I do believe.
Anyway, just a few interesting perspectives worth sharing.
Nunway wrote:
I came upon this site by chance (I usually frequent politics sites, but Instapundit linked to this). My hope for the future has been restored. I am a baby boomer, and it seems most of you are from younger generations. Although you have different views on the post, you all seem to have a far more realistic view of life’s trade-offs than my generation. Good luck in finding the right balance (which will be different for each of you, and for some will not involve children). As for having kids, I have three in various stages of leaving the nest, and my feelings about them are (i)they are money sinkholes, (ii) at each stage of their lives, they have been royal pains in my ass, (iii) I can’t imagine not having had them, (iv) I am certain that my last thought before I die will be that having been a father was the highpoint of my existence on Earth, and (v) they have given to me far more than I ever could give them. So for those of you so inclined, find the best mate you can and start the “making love without the contraceptives” thing. And good luck!
Posted on 13-May-07 at 8:08 am | Permalink
Nunway wrote:
I meant to post the above comments to the Roosh site, but I guess I mistakenly posted on the linking site. Oh well, for all of you in the younger generation reading this, good luck anyway!
Posted on 13-May-07 at 8:11 am | Permalink