Do this, do that, do the other

Ross Douthat would like you to have more babies

Hey DO THAT! Decadence is posed as the opposite to what? Primitivism.

 In the past, people did what came naturally, without much thought about it. They would have had a lot of sex and killed each other when they got angry. They would have had to make plans according to the seasons and environmental changes, to catch enough animals to eat and clothe themselves. This was before humans became decadent. Many children would have died, but you kept having more without knowing where they came from. Life was a lot shorter in these pre-decadent times, too.

 A person who made it to 40 would have been considered old indeed.