The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement Has Some Good Points

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I’m pretty vocal about the fact that I don’t want to procreate. I’ve told everyone I know and almost everyone that I don’t know; I don’t want kids. Surprisingly, about half the people I know are turned off by my non-existent biological clock and more surprisingly, the other half have agreed with me a little too vehemently and told me to check out the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

I didn’t ever bother to check the website until I decided that maybe I’d write about it. The name turned me off and I thought it sounded stupid and almost violent. After all their mission statement is:

"May we live long and die out. Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense. We're really vehement."

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My decision to not have kids is mostly based on a really simple fact -- I don’t feel like it (and never have) and even if I did feel like it, can’t afford it. I mean, not even close, not even with cutting out Starbucks like so many self-made millionaires suggest doing.

But this website is giving me some good ideas on how to comeback against my future-mother-in-law who is already disappointed in me:

Why Breed?
Reasons given:
Want to give our parents grandchildren.
Real reasons:
Still seeking parental approval.
Suggested alternatives:
Live your own life and encourage your parents to do the same.

I’m an environmentalist (as much as a I can be) so it’s rather convenient that -- since I’m dead inside and don’t want to be a mother -- that actually my not making a little baby carbon footprint is sort of good for preserving the Earth. I’m told by many that my biological urge will one day override my power of thinking and reason and I’ll scramble to make a baby and silence that urge.

I’ve always thought that ridiculous. What does the urge feel like? Is it like being horny? That’s the closest I’ve gotten and some of those wacky extinction lovers put it this way:

Humans, like all creatures, have urges which lead to reproduction. Our biological urge is to have sex, not to make babies. Our "instinct to breed" is the same as a squirrel's instinct to plant trees: the urge is to store food, trees are a natural result. If sex is an urge to procreate, then hunger's an urge to defecate.

At my worst (usually when drunk) I can get self-righteous, getting mad at breeders who procreate even though their kids might not have a shot in hell at breathing clean air and I’m the selfish one according to them?

But the VHEMT website makes a good point and calms my self-righteous urges:

Complaints of mothers and fathers being disrespected by others who care about planet Earth aren't entirely imaginary. A kick-butt mentality dominates our society: identify the enemy and kick its butt. Because breeding is the heaviest impact we can have on Nature, some see parents as enemies of the planet. But, if we all hop around in circles trying to kick each other's butts, all we'll get is pratfalls.

My apologies to all the new parents I’ve alienated.

So contrary to what I believed before, this website or movement makes a lot of sense. Some of my friends are thinking about having their second kid so that their current child doesn’t grow up alone. I mean, do we really have that luxury anymore? We’re at our capacity. And I know the automobile and meat industries are highly responsible for global warming but it seems like it’s very taboo to talk about breeding and saving the Earth in the same breath.

For example, in terms of energy consumption, when a North American couple stops at two it's about the same as an average East Indian couple stopping at 60, or an Ethiopian couple stopping at more than 600. Two is better than four, and one is twice as good as two, but to purposely set out to create even one more of us today is the moral equivalent of selling berths on a sinking ship.

Although where the site started to lose me was their hope for an Earth that eventually has no human beings whatsoever. I can’t wrap my mind around giving a shit about that. I am not really passionate about wiping out the human race entirely so that the Earth can heal but more so just letting the people who are being born have something of a chance in Hell, like I did and do, at least for now.

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly - Woody Allen

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/22549/The-Voluntary-Human-Extinction-Movement-Has-Some-Good-Points/