Justification for Existence: Anti-Natalism Chronicles IV

I’ve never viewed my last name as anything special. It’s no more special than anyone else’s first, middle, or last name. Unless you’ve done something for the benefit of all mankind, made some discovery, helped others in a tremendous way (Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Harriet Tubman, etc.) then the name on your birth certificate that you happen to have just because your parent(s) happen to have the same name does not make you an extraordinary person in this world. You will be forgotten, your “legacy” will not live on forever. It may even die with you if you keep trying and trying for that boy and end up with nothing but girls. My grandfather has three girls so as far as he goes, his last name died with him. It still lives on with his brothers who had sons, but with my mother and her two sisters, they no longer shared the same last name as my grandfather.

I try to encourage others not to reproduce. I know I am a proponent of leaving people alone and letting them do their own thing, but having children does interfere with the lives of others and I’ll discuss that in another blog. I try and try again to get the word out there that we don’t need more of us wandering this planet, spreading our genes around like seeds. We’re a virus. Bill Hicks said we’re a virus with shoes and I think that fits. Viruses have names and that’s all it appears to be when people talking about wanting someone to carry on their last name. They want them to carry on a virus.

“I want someone to carry on my family name.” Why? Why is that so important? You’re not going to live forever. If you’re lucky you’ll live to see your grandchildren. If you’re really lucky, you’ll live to see your great-grandchildren, but it’s rare that it’ll extend beyond that. You won’t be around to see where that name takes them. In all probability it will take them nowhere. It’ll just be another name among the millions of other names. Just another name in a world that doesn’t care about it or what it does in the future. No record of you ever being here, no record of your offspring ever being here. No one is going to log onto Ancestry and find any significance to tack onto your name. People are looking to see if they were related to one of the people in history that mattered such as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr. Do you know who Anthony Franklin is? No. You don’t. I just made him up. I’m sure there is an Anthony Franklin out there somewhere, but he’s not going to do anything that’s going to change the world.

Instead of worrying about your name being your legacy, do something worthwhile and let that be your legacy. Do something that helps someone; do something that helps millions of someones. Discover something, invent something, benefit someone or a lot of someones. I don’t know where we got this idea that we need someone to carry on our family name. It doesn’t justify our existence.