Minet44

In Mouse Utopia, once all the good nesting spots were claimed, younger mice couldn’t find a place in the hierarchy. They became the “beautiful ones”—isolated, obsessed with grooming, checked out. Sound familiar? Look at the gig economy or the “lost generation” vibes in places like Japan, where hikikomori (extreme recluses) number over a million. Even in the West, you’ve got NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and a sense that traditional milestones—jobs, homes, families—are out of reach for many. When society’s “slots” feel filled or meaningless, people drop out. And reproduction? The mice stopped breeding, even with no survival pressure. Human birth rates are tanking in wealthy nations—South Korea’s at 0.78 kids per woman, way below replacement level. Sure, it’s partly economics (kids are expensive), but there’s also a vibe shift—why bring kids into a world that feels overcrowded, unstable, or just plain pointless to some? Calhoun saw his mice lose maternal instincts; we’ve got humans debating whether parenthood’s worth it at all.