I started this blog up once again to delve into my philosophical views regarding antinatalism since that has been the one constant belief I’ve held onto for so many years now. For those who are unfamiliar, antinatalism is a philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth. Whereas most people jump for joy at the news someone gives that they are having a baby, I am perplexed and asking them “Why?” Why would you subject something that doesn’t exist to existence?
I don’t remember feeling any pain or suffering of any kind before I was born. I don’t remember anything before I was born. It was only after coming into this world that I started feeling these things: loneliness, despair, depression, pain. If I didn’t exist then I wouldn’t have to feel any of these. I suppose a case can be made for the pleasures in life, but do they outweigh the pain? I guess it depends on the individual and their circumstances.
I haven’t heard a single, rational argument as to why people should be brought into the world. It all boils down to two things: selfishness or a mistake – a person’s selfish need to bring a life into the world that never asked to be brought into the world, or the person just didn’t know how birth control worked and believes that abortion is somehow more cruel than subjecting a human to a life of torment and disarray.
We’re thrown into the world without having a say in the matter because we can’t speak. We can’t say “no.” Someone has already made the decision for us. Some of us grow up resenting that fact, but suicide is not an option because as much as we believe not having children prevents them from hurting, we don’t want to hurt those who gave us life. Parents go to great lengths to protect their children from pain and suffering, not realizing that the only way they could have possibly avoided all that pain and suffering that’s inevitable was to not give birth to their children from the start.
There is also the issue of consent. No one consents to being born. We have to give consent for surgery, for sex, for virtually everything. It seems immoral to toss someone into the world, confusing and corrupt as it is without their consent. Can babies give their consent? Absolutely not, but it seems to me that when something is crying when it first comes into the world, it’s not especially happy to be here. It’s all downhill from there, kiddo.
Should I Kill Myself or Have a Cup of Coffee? 
Pardon me, I read this backwards – the anit-natal chronicles.
There is a lot of pressure for women to give in and breed but I have never seriously thought about doing it and I have a lot of good reasons not to. Firstly I despise what’s left of my family and I am happy to lead to it’s decline, other than my dad who, let’s face it I barely knew I had no decent relatives, I know enough about biology that some things are passed generation to generation and that in itself is quite enough reason for no human to breed.
Which brings me to point two dogs are decent people, humans are horrible, we treat each other, other animals and the earth with contempt, so the most humane thing I can do is not add to that.
The worst though is this, most people I went to uni with have ended up in a wide array of jobs – every single one agrees that if we haven’t passed the point of environmental collapse it’s imminent, that wasn’t deer, it wasn’t hamsters, flies or dandelions it was all us. With a large spoon of dumb luck life on Earth will survive and something better will evolve, but honestly I doubt it. The survival, not that something – anything would be better than us.
I’ve always admired you for being an idealist, funny and intelligent. I think I once said that you were an innocent and I still think that, you care and those of us that do often don’t fit in with the rest. I’d buy your book, write one.
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It’s unfair as far as women go. I was able to go to a urologist, tell him “I want a vasectomy”, and his only question was basically “How do you want to pay for that?” Society seems to have this notion, this idea that women are for nothing more than reproducing. Keep popping out children because that’s all you’re good for, and that notion is utter bullshit. Women should have just as much of a right to do with their body as they please as men do. How is a woman hurting anyone by getting her tubes tied?
We’re on the verge of extinction at some point. It may not be our lifetimes. It may be the next couple of generations, but if I’m being honest … I don’t give a flying fuck. I’m not going to be here when it happens. So people can take all that “future generations” nonsense and shove it. At some point we’re all going to be dead, the world’s still going to turn, and the animals are going to feast on our flesh as well as everything else they were eating before. The only true way for this planet to heal is for it to get rid of us. To that I say, “You do you, Earth.”
And there you go, making me blush. I go back and forth between caring and not giving a shit. Do I think we should care while we’re still here? To an extent, yes. Do I think we should care about future generations? Fuck em. We’ll be dead and they won’t give us a second thought so why should I concern myself? I doubt I’ll be worried much about the goings on on planet earth when I’m dead.
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I went to a gyno at 16 I think, and they just flat out refused until I was 21, they don’t even entertain the possibility that you won’t want a kid later. Funny you can get married at that age, you can’t vote or drive a car but you can have a child which – come on I’m not even mature enough now to go – “I’m so sorry I did this to you.”
The best I could do is the hormonal implant, which is nice but you have to swap it out every three years. I would get my tubes tied but I am done with sex too, it’s just a chore and I prefer pot and maths. That’s fairly indicative of how little headway women’s rights go, in the west it’s as good as it gets but anyone anywhere else is livestock if they think differently they are deluded. I’m damn happy to have been born here and at this time too.
As for the planet trashing it’s unavoidable at this stage I think, if we stopped all the stuff that pollutes the air there is still 7bln and climbing of us, food, water and trees are going to run out soon. Future generations, that’s hilarious, how many do they think they have? I hope this planet hangs in there until I’m 60-70 I think by then I’ll have retired and be tired of it all.
I’ve been to remote places, jungles in Indonesia and Thailand, tiny islands in the Pacific and the arse end of the outback and in each place I’ve seen rubbish, cans, plastic bottles – you name it, the Earth will be happy when we go.
See you at the lake of fire BBQ?
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“See you at the lake of fire BBQ?”
I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
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