Sunday, March 15, 2009

What's killing Russia?

Russia has been described as "sliding into a demographic abyss":
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian fertility rate plummeted from 2.19 children per woman in 1986 to 1987 to 1.17 in 1999. In 2001, the fertility rate was 1.25 in Russia.
This is unsustainable, and a big part of the explanation is that Russia has long relied on abortion as a primary form of birth control. The Bolsheviks had pro-abortion views nearly as extreme as NARAL and the liquidation of Christianity under Soviet rule meant that there was no political, moral or cultural opposition to the practice. Abortion-on-demand thus became deeply engrained in the medical and social traditions of the nation, a Culture of Death that has outlived the regime that spawned it.

A new documentary, Killing Girls, chronicles the brutal reality of this, as St. Blogustine explains:
Here's the trailer for the film:


  1. True, demographics is slowly killing Russia. Which leads one to the thought, "how are they going to solve THAT problem?"

    And then came the action in Georgia, plus the strong-arming of Ukraine, plus the tight, buddy-buddy relationship with Belorus.

    My suspicion is that sometime down the road, Russia and Belorus will merge, followed by an invasion and occupation of Ukraine.

    Yes, it sounds extreme, but given Russia's history, it is not inconceivable.

  2. I remarked during the original Dreher controversy, G K Chesterton laid out the two sins against the Virtue of Hope. They are Optimism and Despair.

    While Limbaugh's offense of Optimism (albeit not a grave Optimism) is a sin against Hope which denies Original Sin and the extant nature of man, the sin of Despair, (which argues against the fact of Redemption) is always fatal.

    In other words, while the first licenses other sins but not necessarily murder, the second begins with license of murder and then licenses all the rest.