Unless falling fertility rates across the West are reversed, we are heading for a future of “certain economic stagnation” or “destabilising” mass immigration, or both.
That is according to Tory MP Miriam Cates, who warned of the existential threat posed by demographic decline during a UK conference, where she appeared alongside psychologist Jordan Peterson.
Ms Cates was among a series of high-profile speakers at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London on Monday.
“Our decline has not been brought about by military defeat or economic collapse or natural disaster.” the Conservative MP said, continuing:
“Rather it has come from within. From the fraying of our social fabric, the network of associations that holds together our families, our neighbourhoods and our nations.
The politician who is a mother of three, told the gathering that the surest sign of western decline “can be found in the evidence of demographic change.”
“By definition a successful civilisation is one that endures, but the fall in fertility rates across the West threatens the future existence of our society,” she said, adding: “If bringing a child into the world is a sign of hope for the future then in the West that hope is in short supply.”
“Unless fertility rate decline is reversed we are heading for a future of certain economic stagnation or destabilising mass immigration or both,” she added.
"If bringing a child into the world is a sign of hope for the future, then in the West that hope is in short supply.'
Miriam Cates MP warns of the existential threat posed by declining fertility rates across the Western world. pic.twitter.com/8UXVZWj8r4
— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 30, 2023
The former science teacher spoke of a “spiral of decline,” telling attendees: “that “warnings about the future to alert us to decline” were not needed, adding:
“We can feel the social fabric fraying around us. At every level of society – families, neighbourhoods, the nation – our social covenant – the shared understanding of identity and responsibility – is under strain.
“Nowhere is this strain more evident than in the erosion of family life,” she said.
She also warned that breakdown in family life in Britain had become an “epidemic” – describing the impact on children as profound, with almost half of British children experiencing what she described as the “dissolution” of their parents’ relationships.
“For children it is the single biggest predictor of poor teen mental health and correlated with worse outcomes in every aspect of adult life,” she said, referring to family breakdown.
Ms Cates also said that the support of extended family had been weakened and loneliness in young people had increased.
“One in seven British adults now take antidepressants and suicide is the most common cause of death for young men.Our families are in crisis, and the social fabric of our neighbourhoods is also unravelling,” she told the inaugural conference.
She also said that the belief in children that their gender can be changed is another consequence of the “fraying” of Britain’s “social fabric.”
“A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand,” she declared, as she slammed the pursuit of “superficial GDP growth at all costs.”
The MP also blamed the increase in working women for the rise in children starting school still in nappies, as she cautioned that too many parents wanted to protect their children from physical discomfort.
She said this sort of shielding could explain the rise in addition to smartphones, childhood obesity, and children’s belief that their gender is something which can be altered.
She said that while it would have been unthinkable to send a child to school without being toilet trained, now it is the case that 90 per cent of reception teachers now report having children in their classes who do not know how to use the toilet.
“Nowhere have the disastrous results of this distorted pursuit of freedom, prosperity and happiness been more evident than in the damage being done to our children,” the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge expanded.
“To use a very practical illustration, consider the rising number of young children who start schooling in the UK still wearing nappies.
“A child who has not been trained in this most rudimentary of skills by the age of five has little chance of being trained in all of the other essential skills and virtues required for a successful life.”
“This is increasingly impossible when our GDP-obsessed economic system demands that even mothers of small children leave their infants in daycare to return to the workplace,” she said.
‘HOW DO WE TILT THE WORLD UPHILL RATHER THAN DOWNHILL?’
In his address, famed clinical psychologist, media commentator and author Dr Jordan Peterson said there was room for hope, as he posed the question to delegates: “How do we tilt the world uphill rather than downhill?” as he encouraged people not to embrace a declinist mentality.
“And the answer is, well, you do that within the confines of your own life,” Peterson said, in an address which placed huge emphasis on personal responsibility.
“The eternal message that’s at the foundation of Western civilization, and I would say necessarily at the foundation of civilization as such, is that we are each a divine locus of value, right and responsibility.
“And if that’s true, then we each have a cardinal and irreplaceable role to play in the destiny of the world.
“What we’re here to do, all of us, is not to listen to yet another plan to bring about the desirable end, but to meditate communally on what each of us can do as the captains of our own ships, to sail the entire fleet towards the promised shores.
“And that’s what we’re here to determine.”
“We have the responsibility to face an uncertain future with faith and courage”, Peterson said, as he told people not to despair and turn away in “cowardice, and confusion, and terror.”
He appealed to people to “take responsibility” for themselves, urging:
“Take responsibility for yourself. Why? Because in bearing that noble burden, you’ll find the self-regard that sustains you through catastrophe.
“And if you can take care of yourself, well, maybe you could dare to offer your hand to someone else, to your wife or to your husband – and you can say we can join together and as a unit we can be stronger and more responsible than either of us could be a part.
“And then if you’re careful and awake and you take on the responsibility, you can manage that.
“And then if you can do that, maybe you can dare to bring children into the world.”
Peterson was also scathing in his takedown of “self-serving hedonism” and a focus on individual identity.
“How do you have the glorious adventure of your life?” he asked, opining that: “You discover that in responsibility, and I would say further that that’s not something that we have been communicating well for decades.”
“We’re torn apart with concerns about identity, and what does identity mean. And we insist at every moment that our identity is to be found in the instantaneous gratification of every possible hedonistic whim, knowing full-well that a pathway that’s marked out by nothing but that self-serving hedonism is destined to despair in catastrophic failure,” Peterson added.
The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, meanwhile. told the ARC conference that the world finds itself at a “civilisation moment” that could bring about the decline of Western values.
Mr Johnson called on the West to return to the “Judeo-Christian tradition,” telling delegates:
“Our better story seeks to return responsibility from government to the citizenry.
“And most importantly, our better story says that we in the West draw on an extraordinary heritage built on the best of the classical liberal and the Judeo-Christian tradition.”
Former Australian deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, Spectator editor and writer Fraser Nelson, and former speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy were also among speakers at the event.