Without hope, there can be no meaning

This is an image from the 1950’s of how they envisioned the future. It looks pretty awesome to me. I would also love a flying car. I think this image also is quite telling. How would a future vision look today? My first guess is doom and gloom. The trajectory is so different. This old picture can only be created with a positive mindset and hope. Without hope there can be no meaning. Society is so weird nowadays. When riding a motorcycle, the very first and most important lesson is that you go where you look. You control the bike with your eyes first and foremost. The same goes for civilisation. If our society is unable to come up with an equally nice picture of the future, where do you think we’re going to end up?

I usually worry a lot. But in the past decade I have also learned from experience that the things I worry about almost never hurt me. Things go wrong, but it always strikes me from a flank that I was not paying attention to. Too much focus on a specific problem is hurtful, because then you will likely be wiped out by something completely different than what you were worried about.

In this context, we should talk about population collapse. People are having fewer and fewer kids all around the world and many countries are way below replacement levels. Especially industrialised nations like South Korea, Japan, Germany and Italy. And China of course. But we are not far behind either. A common explanation to the population collapse is that with urbanization, children become more of a burden instead of free labour at the farm and consequentially we have fewer of them. But that cannot be the whole picture. I think it has more to do with meaning and hope. If there is no hope, it becomes more rational to abstain the greatest thing life has to offer. This is what the story of Abraham and Isaac is about. You will not be around forever to take care of your kids, and thus you must sacrifice them to God. And by doing so, he will take care of them. Trust that they will be OK. If your vision of the future is flying cars, it’s not that hard honestly. If you sincerely believe that the next generation will be even better off than the current, why wouldn’t you want to contribute to that with some kids of your own? Without hope, no meaning.

We are currently introducing our sons to a new kindergarten. I had a chat with one of the teachers about how my 5-your old had this ability to “insta-friend” somebody. That’s something children are absolutely great at. My son has a deep conviction that any new kid he meets is his friend. If you want to make friends, all you have to do is to be one yourself. This behaviour is obviously very contagious. We re-experience the world through children. They remind us of the magic and beauty that is everywhere, but we have seen it so many times that we don’t realize it anymore. We smiled and the teacher said that “The world needs more of this mindset”. That’s right. So, what happens when choose to have fewer kids? A less friendly society in general obviously.

Children inject new life energy and happiness across generations and families. You can’t help it but become happier when they are around. And this will affect every single thing in our day-to-day life. I spent a whole day at kindergarten recently during my son’s introduction and I haven’t had so much fun in years. It is quite the experience to have 4-5 three-year-olds “insta-friend” you and we probably read five books together. Consequently, it will be much easier to come up with a vision of flying cars if you are surrounded by kids.