WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

“Across the globe, people are choosing to have fewer children or none at all. . . .It’s . . . likely that conservatives will inherit the Earth. Like it or not, a growing proportion of the next generation will be born into families who believe that father knows best. . . .
‘If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance.’ . . .Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus,. . . 131 B.C. Still, he went on to plead, falling birthrates required that Roman men fulfill their duty to reproduce, no matter how irritating Roman women might have become. ‘Since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.’ . . . for more than a generation now, well-fed, healthy, peaceful populations around the world have been producing too few children to avoid population decline. . . .
The historical relation between patriarchy, population, and power has deep implications for our own time. As the United States is discovering today in Iraq, population is still power. Smart bombs, laser-guided missiles, and unmanned drones may vastly extend the violent reach of a hegemonic power. But ultimately, it is often the number of boots on the ground that changes history. . . .
What [patriarchal societies] have in common are customs and attitudes . . . among the most important is the stigmatization of “illegitimate” children. . . .Under patriarchy, ‘bastards’ and single mothers cannot be tolerated . . . Patriarchy also leads men to keep having children until they produce at least one son. . . it penalizes women who do not marry and have children. . . . a society that presents women with essentially three options—be a nun, be a prostitute, or marry a man and bear children—has stumbled upon a highly effective way to reduce the risk of demographic decline. . . .
Societies that are today the most secular and the most generous with their underfunded welfare states will be the most prone to religious revivals and a rebirth of the patriarchal family. The absolute population of Europe and Japan may fall dramatically, but the remaining population will, by a process similar to survival of the fittest, be adapted to a new environment in which no one can rely on government to replace the family, and in which a patriarchal God commands family members to suppress their individualism and submit to father."

Excerpts from The Return of Patriarchy, By Phillip Longman in Foreign Policy
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