It Takes a Child to Raise a Village

Married couples with children instinctively strengthen and defend community in a multi-generational way, in ways with those both younger and older do not. Parents specifically want their children to grow up within the community. This means parents see community as a place, a country in which the culture is significantly different.

The young warriors want a lot more. Their military campaigns may add great wealth to the community, but have the potential of destroying the community, either by angering a powerful enemy, or by annexing more than the community can manage. Glory in battle can become a powerful lure, encouraging campaigns that have little to do with the greater health of the organization.

The elders, however, begin to seek out security. Their children are grown. The focus turns from making investments in the future to reaping the results of past investments. They move their funds out of growth stocks and into bonds. This is conservation, the opposite of the young warriors. The elders may kill community by freezing it, making it irrelevant to all but themselves.

Parents balance the two forces. They are just future-oriented enough, not looking for the great utopia or holding on to the good old days, but aiming solidly for a community where their children can grow up learning the right ways. And this is far more likely to keep the community vibrant. Indeed, even the pope has mentioned it.

The health of a people can be measured by its children.