by Torchwood » Sat Jan 15, 2011 2:02 pm
As for marriage, its decline in mainstream society is something I personally regret. Yet the data is puzzling: the (native) French do not indeed bother to get married any more, but the birth rate is healthy and social dysfunction is relatively low, and a lot lower than in the Muslim community. The same is true of Scandinavians, and more or less of the English (the ironically named "fertile crescent" of white Europe). In southern and central Europe marriage remains stronger, but birth rates are dire - and that includes the Muslim Turks. So it is complicated.
It seems to be difficult to have both a strong family culture and a strong effective modern state. No Islamic state falls into the latter category, with the exceptions of Malaysia (half Chinese) and Turkey (half secular).
Pessimism is the soft option.