Upon meeting a new couple, the obligatory question that pops up is: “How did you two meet?" I’d hedge my money quickly on it being very likely that they met on a dating app. That in itself isn’t the sin that is eating away at Western civilization, but one of its symptoms, part of a broader, insidious disease. I’d say people are asleep, unaware of the future of their children being burnt away just beyond the horizon… but while working two jobs to afford an absolutely titanic level of rent – they hardly have the time to lift their eyes off their pillows to see that encroaching, dark and consuming cloud.

Add in doom scrolling through horrid articles that can escape being sued for libel because the news itself is now labeled as "entertainment news;" when then, do people have the time to be bored? During the “Great Plague of London," Issac Newton secluded himself at home for a year, where he was left alone with his thoughts and books and came up with many of his groundbreaking ideas: it was called his “Miracle Year."

Likewise, when humans learned to harness fire (several key things happened, such as the purification of our food, making food easier to digest so our brains could absorb more nutrients, etc) but it also gave humans more time. Once the sun went down and we could no longer hunt or look for edible plants, humans now had more hours in the day to do with what they wanted to, and it was a large step forward for our development. With nothing to do, our imaginations came up with songs and stories, and more social growth and exploration among tribal and familial bands.

Still, the sin isn’t that true boredom is gone – that too is a symptom of the Killing Sin.

As notable and prominent examples, Japan and South Korea have atrocious working hours. In Japan – on paper at least – they work for forty hours a week like us, but overtime is its own beast, so much so that the Japanese have come up with a term that means, “death by overwork." Though the government mandated no more than an extra forty-five hours of overtime can be worked by a single employee per month, during “busy periods," this can be waved away and you can be forced to work up to one-hundred overtime hours per month.

South Korea has a fifty-two hour workweek that was lessened from 64 a few years ago, but there have been new calls by some in the government to ratchet up the time that companies can force a person to work, up to sixty-nine hours a week.

These countries are currently facing the same sort of population problem that almost all western nations are facing: an impending collapse, where the young are simply not having enough babies to support the aging population. The Japanese government has offered money to couples to have kids: to even give stipends for childcare for a decade. South Korea has the worst population problem in the world, and to try and “fight this," their government is giving monetary stipends per child, per couple, to increase in value with the third, and then greater still to increase in value for the fourth child. The South Korean government even organizes mass-group “blind dates." 

And yet, for as smart as the people in these governments claim to be, none have any real answer to the Killing Sin, nor seem to be able to recognize it.

Dear Reader, did you know that as reported by Indiana University, one in three young men aged 18-24 have reported having no sex in the year of 2020? San Diego State University reports that almost every single year since 1989 when they started to collect data, over 26,000 Americans self-reported having less, and less sex.

Around 2016, Ryne Sherman at Florida Atlantic University and Brooke Wells from the Center for Human Sexuality Studies at Widener University found Millennials had fewer sexual partners than those of Generation X, which came before. That’s all Pre-COVID.

The price of housing has skyrocketed – what our fathers could afford for pennies is now sold for millions. The college education that they could afford by working a part-time job has subsided and devolved into myth. Back in 1970, the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Adjusted for inflation that is $13.00 an hour, while the minimum wage I grew up with was $7.00 an hour. The average salary across the whole of the US in 1970 was $9,870. Adjusted for inflation that is nearly $80,000 in 2024, while the current average US income is $63,795.

How are young couples going to find the time to meet other people when they have to work two jobs to pay rent? Why then will they choose to have children and perpetuate your values when not only can they not afford it – but the child will be raised by babysitters and daycare centers because Mom and Dad both need to work, unlike the nuclear set-up that aided the American middle-class?

People need financial safety, and time to be bored so they may seek entertainment and companionship in others, and to create new and glorious things. How often of late have you, dear reader, been unimpressed with the latest, banal iteration of the next superhero movie or basic, boring action movie: part eight? No money and no time equals no inspiration and no growth of a civilization.

No, the Killing Sin’s title, but not its name, is Greed.

Its existence is justified by apathy, born from otherness: “Why should I pay my employee more when they don’t believe in my values? When it doesn't seem like they want to work for me?" So employers don’t, and take in more money for themselves.

Why would anyone want to follow in the values of those above them, if it seems the values that the owners of companies represent are greed and apathy?

And if you do not give, you may end up as the richest man in the graveyard, but you are also one of the many rocks stacked on top of the backs and shoulders of the younger generations, crushing them and the future of whatever country you live in. No time for finding relationships due to overwork, no time to pay for children due to lack of money, and thus when those few children grow, who will defend your cherished homeland? Who will keep your values alive?

The sin that is killing Western civilization: from those nations in the East, modeled after the West, the United States to Europe: is greed excused by apathy – apathy born from forgetting the nature, and results of giving. If you give you shall be regarded well, and others will be inspired to champion your similar values.

To quote the Great Kahlil Gibran: “You often say, I would give, but only to the deserving–”

 “–the trees in your orchard say not so."

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.