He Ain't Heavy?

China has grown up to be a country full of cousin-less, only children that may inherit the Earth. What will become of a planet that could be ruled by a culture whose One-Child Policy has so radically redefined family planning that it will create generations who do not understand brotherhood?


China's explosive growth threatens to make it the new leader of the world. 1.3 Billion people, 4x that of the United states. The economy is growing 12% annually and among many other things, by 2011, they will be producing more cars than the any country in the world


It should be comforting that China has chosen to curb population growth by limiting each couple to one child, but it is also worrisome. This policy has created an entire generation without siblings, men who do not know the camaraderie of brotherhood, women who do not understand sisterhood. Newly married couples will not even acquire siblings as in-laws. Familial love will be limited to deeply loving but strongly hierarchical parent-child relationships. Where will they develop the skills required in peer to peer relationships? There is learning in social organizations and in friendship, but these lack the unconditional acceptance and permanence that comes with having a partner that shares your DNA, parents, lineage, home, and nearly all childhood experiences.


Next generation Chinese nationals will not even know kinship between cousins. Like brothers and sisters, bonds between cousins can also be powerful, unconditional, lifelong, and life altering. What distant relations will teach their next generation of leaders the lesson, "there, but for the grace of God go I"?


How will they view Healthcare? Caring for an elderly parent or grandparent can be difficult when the burden falls on just two or three relatives. How will a generation cope when this equation is flipped, and each couple bears the burden of four parents AND potentially as many grandparents? What institutions can replace extended family? What decisions will be made when the sole concerns for the future of elderly powerbrokers’ can be channeled, narrowly through just one grandchild? How many will avoid the temptation to spoil this child, freeing him or her from "Little Emperor Syndrome."

There are signs that the Chinese people see these weaknesses in the One Child Policy. Exceptions are made when both parents are only children, when the parents can pay for the children's social services, when the children are born in another country, when the first child is deceased, disabled, or female. A minority of the population (25%)does not favor the policy, but after a review early in 2008, the government chose to extend it at least another decade.

For at least the next ten years, China has elected to completely change the meaning of family in a powerful way that is unpredictable and deviant. It is a left turn away from history, evolution, and a culture shared by the rest of humanity. China's growth and probable influence in the world of tomorrow should scare us all, not because it could be controlled by a people that are a little different from us. It could be controlled by a people that has chosen to become profoundly different. Without the tools to resolve these differences, these people will have no way to grasp the concept, "He ain't heavy. He's my brother."