『創世記』にある人類の祖先にかけられた神からの祝福。
「産めよ、増えよ、地に満ちて地を従わせよ。海の魚、空の鳥、地の上を這う生き物をすべて支配せよ。」
私たち日本人には、あまり馴染みのない旧約聖書だが、少なくとも、キリスト教、イスラム教、ユダヤ教の世界では子供が減り続けるのは、神から離れてしまっていることを意味する。
「先進国」と呼ばれる国の国民である、私たちはどこで、道を誤ったのか？
その答えがアーミッシュの生活を調べていくうちに、はっきりと見えてきた。
日本を含む先進国では高学歴化が進み、子育てにコストがかかりすぎている。
健康な女性がもっと子供が欲しいと思っても、金銭面の問題に直面してしまう。年齢の問題も大きいだろう。大学まで進学してしまうと、職業のキャリアがある程度出来上がる頃には20代後半に差し掛かっていたりする。そこから婚活や妊活では、最初の子が生まれるのは30歳前後か。他の先進国でも似たりよったりだろう。
一方、アーミッシュたちは、20歳前後で結婚し、子を産み始め、母体が若く健康であるため30歳くらいまでには、6人くらいは安全に産んでしまうだろう。子供の教育は15歳くらいで終了なので、たいして金もかからず、上の子たちが、下の子たちの面倒をみたり、親の仕事を手伝ったりするので、物心両面で親にかかる負担は日本人よりはるかに小さい。
どちらが幸せだろうか？
「幸せの基準は人それぞれ」とかいう言葉も聞こえてきそうだが、私には現在の日本人が不幸の真っ只中にいるように感じられてならない。死に物狂いで学校の勉強をし、猛烈な競争社会で心は荒れ果て、体はガタガタ、老後は年金をもらいながらの薬漬けの病院通い。
しかし、考えたら日本人も昭和の初期あたりまでは、アーミッシュと似たような生活を送っていた人が多数派だったことに気が付く。なんのことはない、戦前の生活に戻れば良いだけのことなのだ。 私は昭和生まれで、現在の日本がとても嫌な国になったと感じている。平成に入ってしばらくした頃か、「グローバリゼーション」とかいう訳のわからない言葉をよく耳にするようになり、何かとてもギスギスした、神経質な、暗く冷たい雰囲気の漂う国になってしまった印象がある。
A blessing from God placed upon the ancestors of humankind, as described in the Book of Genesis:
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
For us Japanese, the Old Testament may not feel very familiar. However, at least in the worlds of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, a continuing decline in the number of children is seen as a sign that people are drifting away from God.
As citizens of countries often called “developed nations,” we must ask ourselves: where did we go wrong?
The answer gradually becomes clear as one studies the Amish way of life.
In developed countries, including Japan, higher education has become the norm, and raising children has become excessively costly. Even if a healthy woman wishes to have more children, financial constraints are a major obstacle. Age is another significant factor. By the time someone finishes university and begins to establish a career, she is often already in her late twenties. From there, navigating marriage and pregnancy, the first child is typically born around thirty. Other developed nations face similar circumstances.
In contrast, the Amish typically marry around the age of twenty and begin having children shortly thereafter. Because mothers are young and healthy, it is not uncommon for them to safely have about six children by the age of thirty. Education for children usually ends around age fifteen, so the financial burden is modest. Older children help care for younger siblings and assist with parents’ work, meaning that both the financial and emotional burdens on parents are far lighter than those faced by Japanese families.
Which way of life is happier?
One might say, “Happiness is different for everyone,” but I cannot help feeling that many Japanese today are living in the very midst of unhappiness. They study frantically in school, their hearts eroded by a fiercely competitive society, their bodies exhausted, and their old age spent shuttling between hospitals while living on pensions and a steady regimen of medication.
Yet when we reflect, we realize that until roughly the early Showa period, many Japanese lived lives similar to those of the Amish. In other words, all that would be needed is a return to prewar ways of life. I was born in the Showa era, and I feel that Japan has become a very unpleasant country. Sometime after the start of the Heisei era, we began hearing the vague and poorly understood word “globalization” everywhere. Since then, Japan has seemed tense, hypersensitive, and permeated by a dark, cold atmosphere.
コメント