This fits nicely with PCR’s earlier scheduled encapsulation of the fall of our Nation. Read DeGroot’s analysis of the collapse of happiness in America, particularly among the young.

This situation has several causes, all social in nature. Marriage, friendship, religious attendance, and sex are all correlated to higher levels of happiness, and with the exception of friendship, these are in decline. Why? I think the short answer is what I will call the autonomy paradox. There are sometimes good reasons for rebelling against the mores of the past. There are sometimes good reasons for having greater individual autonomy. The trouble is that such changes tend to produce new problems, and are often averse to preserving social cohesion. We must then find ways to deal with those new problems, and to achieve greater social cohesion, nor will the past—or present!—necessarily furnish adequate means for these efforts.

“There is nothing in political liberalism or individual autonomy that can teach the sexes how to make relationships work. For that, they need tradition.”
Progress, too, has a way of producing unexpected problems and sources of unhappiness. Few people, for example, thought that contraception, no-fault divorce, or the internet would engender an instrumental approach to sex and love, and yet that is just what has happened. Increased freedom has meant increased selfishness, manipulation, and irresponsibility. Eros is a free-for-all, with the relations of men and women, in their bewildering autonomy, more and more resembling those of gay male culture. And though there are many people who want more from sex and love, not all of them know how to get it.

According to Wilcox and Stone, the primary cause of declining happiness among the young is less sex:

…

Read the whole piece at Taki’s Mag.

As THE POPE wrote recently, the sexual revolution has helped in a host of depravity. It’s also led to less actual healthy sex. So it is with social media mania – for all the instant connections, we really couldn’t be more isolated.

Progress?