I want to have children (or at least a child) firstly because it's an experience thing but mostly because if I don't I would feel like I've failed as a human being. To reproduce is basically every single species' main goal.
so....Not having children=Selfish?
- Thread starter Vault101
- Start date
the world is already over populated as it is, people need to chill on the whole "we need to procreate as fast as possible" thing
There are what, 7 billion people on earth right now? It's becoming increasingly more selfish to have children, I'd say.
like how those british people in safari suits and pith helmets were being (literally) carried around black people?Scrumpys said:
"I say old chap! do you fancy a spot of rhino hunting?"
"why my good man..that sounds like a most excellent Idea haww haww haaw!"
Vault101 said:
Most, if not all, problems afflicting mankind today are unprecedented, either entirely or in scale.
Say what? The decline of the Ottoman Empire was one of the driving forces behind WW1. I wouldn't call it the first truly global war (I'm with Churchill on that being the Seven Years War), but c'mon.KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life said:
And hey, apparent global anarchy aside, at least kids in school today aren't doing duck and cover drills.
The past always seems better to those in the present. Been to a Renfaire lately?
Mouse One said:
There were obviously huge, far reaching consequences for large events like The Balkan Wars, but they didn't put the entire world at risk. If the world was as corporate then as it is now, there would be even more massive suffering in the Balkan States and Empire, but it would also massively impact the entire world's supply of goods that came from the now fractured Empire. There are no pockets of isolation anymore. Even the tribes in our jungles are affected by every pull on the world stage's curtain.
Vault101 said:
I guess it may be selfish in some people's eyes. Does that mean that I'm going to have kids? Hell no.
I don't understand the appeal of taking care of a little cretin that'll suck me dry, steal all of my food, money, time and will to live. I don't want to spend the rest of my life working a stressful job just so that I can get by. I want a low-wage, low-stress job that'll let my pay my bills and coast by in life with tons of free time. I don't want a big house or a nice car or anything that luxurious. I don't even want a car to begin with! I can just walk or take public transit! I can't live my life the way that I want to if I'm providing for a child. I can do it even less if I'm providing for a wife or girlfriend, which is kind of necessary to have a kid. The child's constant whining and need for attention would rip me to shreds in the early years.
The worst part is, I'd be responsible for the little parasite. I actively avoid responsibility because enough of it makes me feel anxious, almost to the point of giving me panic attacks; if there's something that I feel responsible for, the slightest complication sends me into a fit of depression and overwhelming anxiety. It's not pleasant, trust me.
Bottom line: Screw the economy, screw other people and their opinions of me. No matter how selfish it may be, I will NOT have a child.
I don't understand the appeal of taking care of a little cretin that'll suck me dry, steal all of my food, money, time and will to live. I don't want to spend the rest of my life working a stressful job just so that I can get by. I want a low-wage, low-stress job that'll let my pay my bills and coast by in life with tons of free time. I don't want a big house or a nice car or anything that luxurious. I don't even want a car to begin with! I can just walk or take public transit! I can't live my life the way that I want to if I'm providing for a child. I can do it even less if I'm providing for a wife or girlfriend, which is kind of necessary to have a kid. The child's constant whining and need for attention would rip me to shreds in the early years.
The worst part is, I'd be responsible for the little parasite. I actively avoid responsibility because enough of it makes me feel anxious, almost to the point of giving me panic attacks; if there's something that I feel responsible for, the slightest complication sends me into a fit of depression and overwhelming anxiety. It's not pleasant, trust me.
Bottom line: Screw the economy, screw other people and their opinions of me. No matter how selfish it may be, I will NOT have a child.
uuuuhhhhhhhKAPTAINmORGANnWo4life said:
[http://s1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb437/Vault10191/?action=view&current=Untitled.jpg]
that certainly depnds on how you look at things, I doubt a god fearing peasant famer from the past was musing about the afterlife or the great goals of civilisation....
anyway I think you being a little cynical
Vault101 said:
A peasant farmer wasn't pondering, because they were sure. Their king was given the right to rule them by God, and accepting their slot in life allowed them to one day sit with God.
Now, no matter how flowery and wonderful Hitchens, or Dawkins, or Sagan make life seem, it's still its own point. When the sun engulfs the Earth before melting down, every monument on the planet will die with the insignificant blue dot it was built upon. Not you, nor me, nor Hitler, nor Jesus will always be remembered. Everything is finite. Every decision made on the path to an end we will not see coming, but we know will happen.
No; I don't think either term applies; people have silly ideas about how life should work. Having a kid is a life choice and not one that is good to associate with being selfish or unselfish.
Vault101 said:
There's no point in trying to find what we know isn't there. Anything; raising a child, ruling a nation, playing a game, they are all equal in their ultimate triviality. They are preoccupations of life awaiting it's fate.
More and more people are, consciously or not, becoming aware of this. It is why fertility rates in educated countries are so abysmal. The will of fruitless perpetuity is being eroded from the human mind.
That is why this thread, while sharing pointlessness with all living pursuits, is pointless in another sense: Selfishness doesn't matter. Your race will die. Your nation will die. Your species, planet, system, and galaxy all will die. Your offspring will die. As will theirs, and all which come after. And regardless of what they pursue, where they go, how they live, or what society has deemed as their accomplishments, they, and you, will be forgotten.
ohhh...so you think that people dont want children because they have realised its all meaningless in the grand scheme of things?....KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life said:
I disagree
1. I'd say its more likley with more options in life some peopel would rather just do other things than have children
2. peopel have already given lots of reasons as to why they have children, and its biological..somtimes we dont need reasons
3. alot of people (myself included) find it kind of pointless to think that far ahead, I'd rather focus on...saaaaay Mass effect 3 coming out...than the fact that the universe is beyond my control...I can go and get my copy of ME3, I cant do a damn thing about the universe, so why worry? not everyone is as miserable as you are over the whole thing
4. I'd say its HIGHLY debatle that being blissfully ignorant was such a good thing back in the day...especially at time when peopel were under the Iron fist of the church and unable to think for themselfs or deviate from society...