WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE GONE

🚨 ELON MUSK: “There’s a lot of things that I worry about. The birth rate is very low in almost every country and unless that changes, civilization will disappear. America had the lowest birth rate ever. That was last year. Humanity is dying.” pic.twitter.com/E6XiKDwdV3

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 28, 2025

How do we measure the success of a civilization?  Let us examine some metrics.

Technological Progress.  Depending upon whom you ask, this could mean the flourishing or the end of a civilization.

There is open speculation at this time by some that the ascendance of artificial intelligence may permanently alter what it means to be human—for the worse.

Humans, however, long ago adapted to be “good enough” to control the technical aspects of their lives.

Military Power.  In the classical world, Rome enjoyed great success for a long time due to military power, but this ultimately faded due to social and cultural changes.

Two more of the most martial societies on the face of the Earth—the Spartans and Japan under the Shogun—were renowned for their military prowess at times in their history, but ultimately their prowess ossified in the face of a range of changes they did not adapt to.

Due to the highly conservative nature of military thought, one might say it is at a disadvantage in solving anything beyond near-term problems.  No, this aspect of culture can be beneficial, but it is not everything.

Human rights and freedoms.  Although this metric is certainly desirable to us, freedom does not guarantee civilizational success.  Anarchy is an extreme that calls into question whether a civilization is even present.  Ancient Rome was in many ways vastly less free than we are today.

It perfected practical slavery, conquered many peoples, engaged in often brutal social control, and emphasized social standing and duty much more than the worth of the individual.  However, Rome lasted as a republic and an empire from 509 B.C. to 1453 A.D. If you include Eastern Byzantium, a time span of 1,962 years.

Most every human rights lawyer, politician, denizen of Starbucks, or university inhabitant today would have been enslaved or used for entertainment in the Coliseum back then.

Contrasted with the state of our own country, this is particularly devastating and puts the lie to the notion that the “American” way will necessarily be the way forward for humanity versus a historical mist that came and faded.  The burden of proof is on us.

But in examining longevity further, we realize we’re getting closer to a solid metric.  How long your civilization lasts is indeed an important measure of its success.   What makes it last?  More people, people who identify with and are members of the civilization.

To have that, you need an environment that promotes the creation and proper socialization of new members, meaning children, women having children.  This is done through cohesive family units.

And in this area, we not only see America’s challenge, but its weakness and its probable catalyst for destruction if the national ship is not righted.

At this time, I will invoke some of my own experience in law enforcement as well as other data in drawing conclusions.

I can report that many, many people who marry or engage in relationships with other people in America that produce children appear to not understand what they are getting themselves into legally and get it explained to them with a deer-in-headlights look on their face, by a lawyer, once the “balloon has gone up”.

An industry has been created — composed of both government bureaucrats and lawyers, that is maintained not on the success of families but their failure.  Any divorce or family dispute will bring in the machine, which rarely settles anything in favor of anyone but the ones getting paid.

Daily throughout America, police respond to family disturbances that are guaranteed to generate a police report and investigation.  If any probable cause (facts indicating more than likely a crime occurred) ranging from assault to threats is found, one or more people will be charged criminally even if the victim doesn’t want that, because the state itself can be the complainant.

If either half is gunning for a child custody or financial advantage for their planned divorce or separation, there will be many more calls as they try to weaponize the system, and in particular the police, against the other half.  Even if no one is arrested, the opportunities for people to lose money, rights, their freedoms, their jobs, and the house they have paid to live in are plentiful and will come thick and fast.

I have personally dealt with hundreds of these calls.  I have responded to suicides where the suicide note talked about their marriage problems.  Many, many of the arrests I made came out of domestics.

Although I had a clear conscience in my actions taken, I have to say, having looked back on over twenty years of this, that involving the organs of government so deeply in our families has had many more ill effects than good effects.

Not only have people refused to solve their own family problems on their own, but there is an expectation that they are better off to have the government or lawyers solve their problems for them.

Little do they know that no one is interested, truly, in solving their problems—or can.  The responders are either filling out their legally mandated checklist, or reacting to a situation that is now out of control.

Attempts to change this, when they have fleetingly started, usually are met with canned outcries from the money and power interests accusing the reformers of everything from Nazism to stupidity to being Russian agents.  This should sound familiar.

Beyond the legalities, anyone who has had to pay the expenses associated with children will immediately understand how our fighter jet programs have cost overruns.

Add to that the toxicity and issues associated with the modern public school, and a culture that actively promotes selfish and anti-family attitudes, and you have the current state.

As many more people are figuring this all out, the birth rates in the United States are diving sharply and are below replacement level.   If this trend were to continue indefinitely, we would face a species crisis as Elon observes.

Men and women alike are finding that they would rather party and have toys than invest in a stock with a greater than fifty percent chance of tanking and taking their lives with it (marriage); mental, emotional, and possibly physical damage aside; it’s far more fun to make Tik-Tok videos, spend time making oneself look awesome on social media, and otherwise pursuing self-fulfillment.

I would say part of understanding the divorce rate should be noticing that marriage rates themselves are down.  This may further depress the meaning of the statistics and understate the overall problem.

Similar trends are being seen in other Western countries, which are taking cultural and governmental cues from the United States.  At the above link, notice that not one country has a birthrate at or above replacement level.

A foray into the activity of USAID Jacobins confirms that a lot of our “foreign aid” was intended to convince foreigners to act against their demographic interests and to stick things where they should not.  That alone is a monstrous crime against humanity and should see all of them sent to the Phantom Zone at least.

Much of the current thinking on population, and disrespect towards the family unit, was started by beliefs in the 1960s and 1970s that we were going to have a “population bomb” of too many people on Earth.   Suddenly it made sense to them for men and women to do anything but have children.

Although the full story of this is beyond the reach of this article, it is my opinion that the toxic stew of bad policies, based on a lack of appreciation for families and the basics of human behavior, has been weaponized to weaken the United States and the West now.

This is because many globalists deeply dislike the family, as they do the nation, as it is a block to them having their utopian ideals enacted.

An aggressive agenda from the bottom up as well as the top-down will be needed to convince Americans to have families and support their families, to have children in those families, and to socialize them to replicate the success of their parents.

This will necessitate turning numerous legal and social sacred cows, and possibly the people who will die on the hills to save the old order, into Big Macs.  If people believe the liabilities and risks of having families and children outweigh the benefits, our civilization will die.  We need to heed Elon’s warning.

Mark Deuce has had a life-long career in community law enforcement. He is the author of Deuces Wild for TTP.