Vernal Equinox
“If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation, as to spare it the burden of existence? Or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood.”
Arthur Schopenhauer Sufferings of the World 1851
Springtime comes and a trans-cultural, almost universal celebration of procreation explodes around us. Every egg and tight bud threatens to become another metaphor for the unique beauty of pure potential, in life anew. As winter gives way to warmth and the days overtake the dark, it is tempting to find solace in this predictable and certain rebirth. “All is well, it has happened again,” the trees shake. As if some unity in a circle of life were enough to justify life itself. It is the logic of nature that all things happening naturally are good.
Similar echoes can be found in the reasoning behind human procreation: people make people and so it should be. Like fruit-flies and finches, few pause to question the practicality, the logic, the ethics of this most human of human endeavors. More thought goes into the choice of stroller accessories than the future sustainability of our species. Despite undeniable overpopulation that is visibly taxing all our natural resources and leading to untold social conflict and unprecedented suffering - not to mention environmental destruction - we as a race continue to burden more and more humans, as well as the earth’s remaining living things, with more and more humans.
From The Population Media Center:
The world’s population is now more than 6.6 billion and continues to grow by 78 million people per year. During the last half-century, the world’s population more than doubled. Between 1950 and 1999, the world population rose from 2.5 billion to 6.0 billion. In other words, there has been more growth in population in the last fifty years than the previous 2 million years that humans have been walking the earth. At current rates of birth and death, the world’s population is on a trajectory to double in 49 years.
Without any real purpose, no perspective and no plan, we plod forward through the generations. Innocent, we are not. And yet, there is a way out: an ethical and responsible solution. But, it requires a commitment unlikely to gain popular support.
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT, pronounced vehement) is a movement advanced by people who care about life on planet Earth. … Voluntary human extinction is the humanitarian alternative to human disasters. The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of Earth’s ecology.
Simply put, to join this movement you must make the monumental sacrifice of not reproducing. Voluntary human extinction is not only a humanitarian alternative to wholesale ecological devastation, but also a means to avoid exponential human disasters and ever an increasing sphere of human suffering. Visit VHEMT to learn more.