STOP BREEDING, PLEASE!
A tadpole in the world’s largest pond is destined to be overworked, I guess (I do consider going home at 8 pm unusually early!). But when I’m in my philosophical mood, when all the big fish are minding their own business, I sometimes think about the world beyond this cold office, beyond optimizing hydrocarbon production and running reservoir simulations..
And in times like that, what do I see? Indonesian politics drama, Zimbabwe’s super-inflation, Chindia’s soaring industrial growth, Pope’s silly moves, US embarking on -what could be- a recession. And those old stories: global warming, ethnic wars, deforestation, malnutrition, third world countries, climate change, endangered species..
Homo sapiens is indeed the fittest to survive on earth, don’t you think? We survive in spite of all the trials bestowed on us, and we relentlessly enjoy surviving. Cut the trees down- build a condo. Shoot the foxes and wear a pretty fur coat. Breed and breed and breed. Drive and fly and explore the five continents just as we wish- without a care that progress comes with a price.
It all comes down to this: old, poor Mother Earth could no longer support our population growth and frivolous habit of wanting instant gratification. Progress does come with a price- and a high one, too.
So I sit enjoying my rare musing moments, and like a world leader I scribble three options for mankind to respond to this global issue:
1. Find another earth
This is probably what NASA is doing.. but I’m not too sure.
2. Be environment-friendly, be green, be far-sighted
Easier said than done, especially with runaway population growth in third world countries, where the immediate needs are of decent food instead of decent education.
This leaves us the third option to act on first, which is:
3. Stop breeding
Yes sir. For the short-term action, if you want to improve the quality of our life as a whole, I’d recommend mankind to minimize breeding. I’m not against our biological functions—I think it’s pretty understandable that having sex doesn’t mean having another baby every 10-month or so.
Now you have your eyebrow raised. Fine. I’ve always had this idea of enforcing regulations on whom are permitted to have babies and whom restricted—and I’m open to discussion. See if we start from the same ground here.
To procreate is of course our basic instinct, just as survival is. But it takes a lot more than just lust and instinct to raise and educate your kids. Every child is born with unlimited potentials, and more or less it’s up to you to shape them into environment-friendly, green, far-sighted people- or into good-for-nothing, ruthless, reckless creatures. Let’s just humbly admit that some people are not up to bringing up little kids: drugsters, the mentally imbalanced, the very uneducated, he very poor ones. You see people deteriorating their dignities in the struggle to keep on living just because they have lived. It might not be their chief faults, but you can’t help trying to avoid reoccurrence if you can manage it, right? So what’s wrong with the idea of restricting them to have kids that they’d just ruin as well in the end? On the opposite, if you’re mentally, culturally and financially ready to enlarge your family, please do. Only bear in mind that having kids is a lifelong job- you make a contract with God and the consequence will tail you forever.
Again and again I ask myself if I’m being unfair, if I’m violating human rights by saying that some people don’t seem to be eligible to have kids—but I think I am practicing the basic concept of free justice: that you have to meet the required standard and prove that you are competent before you get the opportunity to perform something- including having kids. What the standard is, and how to implement it, I leave it to the REAL authority on mankind issues. The government. Or probably you.
I’m just a tadpole in a capitalistic system, and really, I don’t have much time to muse around. But even within these four walls, I have a dream of a better future for mankind: a loving family living happily close to the nature-- living in such a way that they don’t have to deny Humanity. That's what it means to be God’s perfect creation.
Labels: green stuff
posted by eloque @ 5:59 AM
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