Douthat: Reproduction Enthusiast
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Anybody have any sense of how radically overpopulated the planet will have to become before Douthat and his ilk stop pretending that we have a moral obligation to crank up the population?
What is it with these people and reproduction? How have they convinced themselves that it is a moral obligation?
It's some kind of madness.
Link
Anybody have any sense of how radically overpopulated the planet will have to become before Douthat and his ilk stop pretending that we have a moral obligation to crank up the population?
What is it with these people and reproduction? How have they convinced themselves that it is a moral obligation?
It's some kind of madness.
posted by Winston Smith at
7:12 PM
4 Comments:
A lot of people seem to think having children is the meaning of life. I know more than a few couples who regularly insist that their children are "their world" and that everything of value to them hinges on their children. It's easy to gloss over these gross hyperbolic assertions and forgive what one might assume is the standard-issue imprecise banter which is exchanged so commonly between friends, but more often than not, I think these statements betray a deeper problem.
My hypothesis regarding the source of the issue has long been that people commonly lead vapid, meaningless lives and at some point they realize this. Knowing that there is no easy fix, since a meaningful life takes consistent, devoted, and disciplined effort over the course of many years, they panic. Because society is so ridiculous when it comes to children ("DON'T YOU TELL ME HOW TO RAISE MY KIDS" etc.), children become a very easy foundation for fabricated life meaning.
They quickly see that no one on earth will ever challenge anyone who says that their kids are EVERYTHING to them. American society in general seems to wholeheartedly endorse the notion that the love parents have for their children is the most important thing ever to exist, regularly touting such nonsense like "No one can understand the love for children until they have their own" and what-have-you.
So, if you can just grab you some of that offspring-induced meaning in your life, you don't have to admit that you haven't put the work in for those decades which preceded your offspring to actually have, y'know...a meaningful life.
That's my guess as to why procreation in general seems to be considered something of a moral obligation by so many members of our society. It may be overly cynical, but I have yet to experience a good amount of evidence against it.
One way I've gathered evidence for it is by observing social media outlets such as facebook. I'd say at least 90% of the couples I know with children make regular postings about how special and important their kids are, citing obviously mediocre or blatantly uninteresting data regarding said kids.
People have absolutely no sense of scope or reality when it comes to their kids.
I see. I don't merit a response on such subjects any longer, now that I'm a breeder, eh?
Well I am shocked, mister. Shocked and appalled.
Breederbreederbreeder
Actually, I thought it was a good point, and had nothing to add.
Oh, but this:
I also think a lot of people see having kids as an attenuated type of immortality.
I'm not against having kids, of course. Just against having too many of them, and against stupid arguments for the conclusion that we are obligated to have them.
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