Our stark future

Wow.  Was this NYT feature on how there are lots of women in American colleges who are as comfortable with the hookup culture as men ever indicative of what we're becoming.

The hookup culture was already established by the mid-70s, when I was in college.  Back then, though, it was mostly hippie-type chicks who went in for random encounters.

Apparently the norm now is the driven, career-focused gal:

Ask her why she hasn’t had a relationship at Penn, and she won’t complain about thedeath of courtship or men who won’t commit. Instead, she’ll talk about “cost-benefit” analyses and the “low risk and low investment costs” of hooking up.

“I positioned myself in college in such a way that I can’t have a meaningful romantic relationship, because I’m always busy and the people that I am interested in are always busy, too,” she said.

“And I know everyone says, ‘Make time, make time,’ ” said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity but agreed to be identified by her middle initial, which is A. “But there are so many other things going on in my life that I find so important that I just, like, can’t make time, and I don’t want to make time.”

Clearly, this is making everybody hard - and, no, I don't mean it that way.  In fact, quite the opposite.  This attitude is not exactly conducive to rising libido, let alone good old romantic feelings:

 Some women also want to wait to see how men turn out as they advance through their 20s.

A., for example, said that she did not want to settle down until she could choose a partner knowing that his goals and values were fixed.“‘I’ve always heard this phrase, ‘Oh, marriage is great, or relationships are great — you get to go on this journey of change together,’ ” she said. “That sounds terrible.“I don’t want to go through those changes with you. I want you to have changed and become enough of your own person so that when you meet me, we can have a stable life and be very happy.”In the meantime, from A.’s perspective, she was in charge of her own sexuality.“I definitely wouldn’t say I’ve regretted any of my one-night stands,” she said.“I’m a true feminist,” she added. “I’m a strong woman. I know what I want.”

What kinds of guys do they find to hook up with?  I'd venture to say any guy who participates in a midnight tryst with the likes of these ladies has to be operating from a premise of at least a little misogyny.  You know, "She's hot and a great lay, but, man, is she a tough competitor in our business-case-study class.  I can't blink when we're presenting projects."  Gratifying at night, an opposing gladiator by day.

There's the future of post-America.  Technocratic young cell phone addicts networking and jockeying for position in the world of high achievement, while the rate of family formation and population replacement plummets to the levels of Greece or Italy.  Automatons who "fit sex in" the way they do workouts or errands like picking up the dry cleaning or getting the oil in their cars changed.  A generation so consumed with grabbing what it has always been told is the quality life that it can't bear to face the question of whether that life has any purpose whatsoever.