Now, I don't want to suggest that everyone everywhere ought/must get married. Clearly that isn't the case. But I was very much struck by this book review of a book about the "virtues" of living a single life. The idea that such a choice should be a common one and one to be celebrated simply because it leaves one more time for the frivolous pastimes of this modern life is ridiculous. There has long been a place in Western societies for the single individual, but this was almost always because they were devoting themselves to a great purpose.
Most commonly, of course, are monks and nuns. Men and women who forego family life in order to devote themselves to the worship and service of God. The book, however, argues that one ought to consider singleness simply because it leaves you time to go to the movies of an evening and more free time to raid with your guild in World of Warcraft.
Of course people generally ought to get married and have kids. It's a bizarre notion to contend otherwise and no one has ever thought differently until very recently. It wasn't just kings and nobles who worried about having an heir, even the common folk wanted to have someone to whom they could pass their name.
In the end, of course, there's no real reason to get too terribly worked up about this, because like any movement that discourages its adherents from reproducing, it has trouble persisting for more than a couple generations. But it's worthwhile to sound the warning while it lasts.
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