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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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To cite examples, it's easier to look at the mirror image: When do families and society most want sons? Two example in modernity come to mind - Soviet Union post WWII, and China during One Child policy era. In the words of the saying, Hard time create Strong men.

The way that happens, I posit, is hard times cause society to re-structure the rules to incentivize men to be productive and have loyalty to the system or family.

The Soviet Union post WWII ended up with crap men, not hard men. From Danelia's and Ryazanov's anti-heroes to Skuf, it's a rogues' gallery of weaklings and losers.

is the nature of taking risks, no? You can always say in hindsight that it was a bad idea, but when you succeed it's a triumph. They can seem more or less sensible in the prior analysis, but you're only really going to know if your assumptions are correct once you try it.

You seem to know a lot more about this example than I do. And I'd be interested to hear an elaboration.

But you misunderstand my interpretation: the quality of men (strong/weak/crap etc) is not really the changing or even important factor. Instead it's the incentive system of culture and society that varies greatly and is the most important factor. "Strong" men are simply those who inhabit a society which prioritizes masculine virtues, like Soviet Union society and culture after 1945.