The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
Today I heard about the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT). Their slogan is May we live long and die out. It's a pretty radical movement which summarily calls for folks to stop having babies…completely! Les U. Knight, the spokesman for VHEMT says "I don't think the intentional creation of one more by anyone anywhere can be justified today. An ideal number [of people] would be zero, because as long as there is one breeding couple, we could be right back where we are again in 10,000 years." They even showcase Prestigious Awards for Reproductive Responsibility (the Silver and Golden Snip (for neither of which I will Ever be eligible)) and The Top Ten Reasons Not to Have Another Baby
I don't know what the Earth's capacity limit is...I've always kinda thought that it would provide for all of us as long as we took care of it. Ok...maybe we haven't held up our part of the bargain, but we are making sincere efforts and that should give us a Karmic Boost dontcha think?
Are they serious??? Yes. Yes They Are.
Comments
I vote no on that bill. I watched children of men. That looks depressing. Seriously though, how could anyone trust a group of people like that? If anyone ever admitted to be part of that group I'd immedately consider them a particularly nasty kind of evil, and I don't believe in good or evil per-se, but that sort of heinous denial of life's perogatives is pretty sick if you think about it.
Rather than a heinous denial of life's prerogative, I think caring for our existing children, instead of creating more, demonstrates our best qualities as members of the human family.
We're not finding fault with people who have already reproduced -- many VHEMT Volunteers have done so. The idea is to not create more in the future, for the good of all life, human and non-human.
Street Vein, you're likely right that we're not all going to stop reproducing, particularly since hundreds of millions of couples are denied the contraceptive services they want. True, the drive that supercedes all rational thought often leads to pregnancy, but thanks to modern contraceptives we can give in to that drive and avoid life-threatening consequences at the same time.
The group has a very valid point though, population pressures are only increasing, never decreasing, and the total world population never goes down. Therefore, with an increasing population density the demands for resources increases proportionally, or perhaps more-than-proportionally.
I've believed for some time that only a human catastrophe on the scale of a global pandemic would be capable of relieving any of the stress the planet has experienced in our time here.
Finally, I believe that our very existence today proves that humanity will endure "forever." Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Hi Les - Thanks for stopping by the neighborhood and for your comments.
I can see and appreciate both sides of the issue. Funny, I am a preacher of always doing the Greater Good, but obviously limited that (in my own thinking) to the greater good of Humanity and not the True Greater Good of All and Everything that is encompassed in this Earth and our Universe. We, as humans, do appear to be a bit conceited when rationalizing our existence...considering that many a species have come and gone in the billions of years of the Earth's existence and survived longer than We have been around to date.
Remember in the early 80's hearing people always say "How can you bring another baby into this world? It's so cruel...etc etc" I do. I remember hearing it on popular sitcoms and everyday conversations. It was a popular thing to say then so the concept isn't really new. However, there is a negative connotation with the word "Extinction" especially when combined with the word "Human" dontcha think?
A point missed is that the Movement is Voluntary. Unlike China's One Child Policy where you're actually fined for having more than one child. Some people will choose to align their lives with the principles of the Movement and some will not... but as it Is Voluntary your Right to conceive is still not denied.
I think open discussion is always a good thing. "Just because you can have a baby, doesn't mean you should" -- that's one I always remember.