Stop vacuuming for a second

I almost missed George Jonas's piece on Thursday, the Suicidal Generation. Thankfully my husband pointed it out to me.

Jonas had some very insightful words about the state of the world, and how the patriarchy has given way to the matriarchy.

"No generation has been as adept at sawing off the branch on which it was sitting as ours. We want to live in good health forever — fair enough — and start by killing off those who would help us achieve this ambition. We have nothing against babies, and actually wish other people had more of them because we may need them as ratepayers and organ donors, but having to bring them up cramps our style. 

As if extending post-retirement — i.e., unproductive — life by 20-30 years weren’t economically reckless enough, we pursue policies of longevity while casually slaughtering those who might pay for it. Sometimes I feel like going: “Hey, fellow, stop vacuuming for a second! That lump you’re about to remove is your only possible means of support in your Viagra days.
“Never mind if it’s alive or not, you are! You’re alive, and not only want to live past the age of peak productivity, but past the age of self-sufficiency as well. Cost what it may in diagnostic, surgical, pharmaceutical and geriatric research and treatment, you want to explore the far shores of dependency and maximum consumption of medical care and social services. Yet there you go, vacuuming away your sole means of support as if there were no tomorrow — and for you, there may not be.”
...
Had I been born a little earlier, say, 30 million years ago, in the same place, I wouldn’t have become a columnist. What geologists call the Pannonia basin was the bottom of a shallow sea then, covering much of Europe. Born in such a place, chances are I would have been an ancestral fish. I couldn’t have participated in building a society in which the least safe place is the womb and babies have no one to fear but their mothers. Yes, I would have missed something for sure."

I for one, am very glad that Jonas has received the Order of Canada. Much better than one of his predecessors, Dr. Henry Morgentaler. Who made his living from vacuuming out babies. Thank God for small mercies.