<story><title>The Social Recession: By the Numbers</title><url>https://novum.substack.com/p/social-recession-by-the-numbers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Every single highly individualistic society seems to be in population decline (more so if you factor out immigrants from “anti-progressive” Muslim or Catholic countries). Individualism seems to be a self-limiting feature of society: it’s unpleasant to raise children in highly individualistic societies, which makes such societies inherently transitory.[1]&lt;p&gt;Is societal self-obsolescence how you define “progress?” How successful can your society really be if your people don’t seem to want to raise kids in it and perpetuate it? If you have to import people from collectivist societies just to take care of your elderly?&lt;p&gt;[1] The inverse is not true—many collectivist societies are also facing population walls—but for quite different reasons.</text></item><item><author>seydor</author><text>The US must not be a low-trust society. You should try to live in an actual low trust society (where people can&amp;#x27;t trust institutions and instead revert to their family or clan). The US is not like that, people seem to trust other people they have never seen before because they trust things like justice or the US army or google or apple.&lt;p&gt;Other than that, it seems that things are progressing as normal. Since the times of the Enlightenment, there was this oxymoron of idealizing individual empowerment, while advocating that humans are social animals that must act collectively. Which is it? Well with today&amp;#x27;s technology and abundance people are drifting deliberately and decisively towards more individualism. Perhaps it is about ime to stop describing these things as &amp;#x27;problems&amp;#x27; and realize that they are the new reality. Our politics worldwide is quite ancient , and not prepared for the next phase of individual empowerment. The places of the world that are stuck in collectivist mindsets are awfully deluded like Russia, or rigidly antiprogressive, like China.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>godelski</author><text>But many collective societies are also facing similar issues of loneliness and isolation. This isn&amp;#x27;t just a western problem. We also see this same problem all across Asia: India, Japan, China, Korea. Some of these countries even had a rise in isolation before the US. I don&amp;#x27;t think it is a individualism vs collectivism issue, though I&amp;#x27;m not going to dismiss it from the equation. I think it is that humans have just gotten comfortable as our lives have all tremendously benefited. We have little day to day problems. The problems we face now are much more abstract and existential than before, which tend to not be as motivating for adopting risky behavior.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Social Recession: By the Numbers</title><url>https://novum.substack.com/p/social-recession-by-the-numbers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Every single highly individualistic society seems to be in population decline (more so if you factor out immigrants from “anti-progressive” Muslim or Catholic countries). Individualism seems to be a self-limiting feature of society: it’s unpleasant to raise children in highly individualistic societies, which makes such societies inherently transitory.[1]&lt;p&gt;Is societal self-obsolescence how you define “progress?” How successful can your society really be if your people don’t seem to want to raise kids in it and perpetuate it? If you have to import people from collectivist societies just to take care of your elderly?&lt;p&gt;[1] The inverse is not true—many collectivist societies are also facing population walls—but for quite different reasons.</text></item><item><author>seydor</author><text>The US must not be a low-trust society. You should try to live in an actual low trust society (where people can&amp;#x27;t trust institutions and instead revert to their family or clan). The US is not like that, people seem to trust other people they have never seen before because they trust things like justice or the US army or google or apple.&lt;p&gt;Other than that, it seems that things are progressing as normal. Since the times of the Enlightenment, there was this oxymoron of idealizing individual empowerment, while advocating that humans are social animals that must act collectively. Which is it? Well with today&amp;#x27;s technology and abundance people are drifting deliberately and decisively towards more individualism. Perhaps it is about ime to stop describing these things as &amp;#x27;problems&amp;#x27; and realize that they are the new reality. Our politics worldwide is quite ancient , and not prepared for the next phase of individual empowerment. The places of the world that are stuck in collectivist mindsets are awfully deluded like Russia, or rigidly antiprogressive, like China.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>seydor</author><text>&amp;gt; in population decline&lt;p&gt;So? It&amp;#x27;s not the most populous groups that dominate, quite the contrary. The world had half the population just 50 years ago.</text></comment>