(n.b. Of course I hope I’m wrong, and I’m doing what I can to make sure I am, buti it is a truly monstrous challenge.)
One of these things is not like the others. Can you spot it?
EDIT: formatting
How do you justify your own existence if you "know" the earth eventually won't be habitable. I have the answer for you: you hope. There's plenty of that left, it's what keeps us all going.
You don't justify your own existence; that was never your own decision. You justify your decisions, and having children is a decision.
Just picking that one nit. I do agree with the importance of hope, and I chose to have children. Though I totally respect people who make a different decision.
Also, when I was a kid I believed I would die within 20 years because of some natural disaster (hole in the ozone layer, nuclear war where the fears of the day). People at all times seem to believe that the end of the world is just around the corner.
I know, I know - this time it is for real...
Ultimately, we all die no matter what we do, so why do anything at all?
That is true in South Korea as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwZ0ZUy7P3E
"Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most - and left the intelligent to become an endangered species"
Edit: For those that seem to think I'm calling people who have children stupid - idiocracy is a satirical movie. I would suggest you actually watch the link i posted (i.e. at least "read" the comment before you reply to it...)
As a species, it isn't particularly intelligent to not reproduce.
I can tell you who our natural predators are: it's other people, who compete with us over wealth, resources, choice of ideology. Feeling smart and acting smart (as a group) doesn't seem to be the same thing.
Give me one good reason to have kids other than stupid "it's the miracle of life" bullshit, tell how it's a smart move ?
In simple terms saying people having children are not that intelligent, is like saying people preferring pizza over pasta (or other way) are dumb.
(And yes, I do think that those who think the is–ought distinction is bullshit are not that intelligent...;)
1. you propagate your genes
2. you likely have a backup kidney and liver for your old age
3. you have a human being that is legally required to help you out financially upon coming of age,
4. you have another person in your life that oxytocin makes you fall in love with deeply and unconditionally, and if you don't fuck it up, that love is reciprocated.
Then again, it is a lot of work, stress and there are no guarantees, but it's still as stupid as to join/found a startup (lots of work, stress, no guarantees, it basically changes you) - the main trade-off being is that your child is more likely to grow up well than your startup will become a unicorn, but you can't sell your child for a billion currency units (and i can assure you, if you're not a sociopath or mentally ill, you will not want to). So there's that.
The solution is to discourage the "idiots" from having kids in the first place -- not to compete with them.
Being overfocused on imaginary problem is not solution to existing problems.
Eugenics have been tried several times, all over the world, and both produced terrible abuses - especially of disenfranchised social groups - and also failed miserably.
Please, let's not.
People had kids all through the worse times -- not just accidentally as some implied here, they actively wanted and had kids.
The "climate change" etc excuses are just excuses (the same could have been said in the 10s after the Spanish flu toll, in the 30s about the unstable world politics, in the 50s to 80s about the possible "nuclear holocaust", and so on).
Or does somebody believe the billions having kids today are "bad people" and they're some kind of enlightened figure?
This is absolutely false if you live north of the poverty line and are educated and wealthy (by world standards), which if you're commenting here, you probably are.
Have kids or not, but don't delude yourself into thinking that it's bad. Rich people not having kids is literally the worst thing you can do with regards to children-based decisions on the effect of the state of the world.
The West hasn't really grappled with this question yet, but give it 15 years - when climate breakdown starts seriously affecting quality of life - and I expect the birthrate to crash.
Suffer from what exactly? In my family, half of my father's siblings and cousins died from war and hunger, the rest also had to hide from constant bombing and assaults, in fact my grandmother's village was wiped completely from the map. Yet they have tried their best to build the country so that now I can type this comment, safe from any kinds of harm. I consider it is my duty to do the same for the next generation. IMO the society should support families with kids more, as they are nurturing the future of mankind, literally.
Now we live with the threat of server climate change, that many people believe is likely to lead to war, famine, and infectious disease.