I've read quite a few of Ian Dunt's articles now. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes not. This article is, in my opinion, the most on target that I have read so far. Quote therefrom:
In actual fact, the government has no particular interest in the truth. As Professor Nutt said yesterday, the Home Office's decision to upgrade cannabis from Class C to Class B had a far more significant political effect than the error of its imposition. With the experts all telling the government this was the wrong move, and all the data pointing to a reduction in use since the drug was downgraded in 2004, Smith, under orders from the prime minister, upgraded it to class B anyway. The precedent was clear: experts and evidence mean nothing. Tabloid headlines mean everything.
There could be no better lesson upon which to start a politically conscious life: the government is not telling you the truth. With that piece of knowledge you can become a fully active citizen, rather than the passive sponge government wishes you to be. The next time a prime minister tells the public that a country can attack us in 45 minutes in order to justify a war, the kids will be suspicious. The next time politicians throw insults at each other as a means of evading debate, they will be suspicious. The next time a politician justifies taking away British freedoms with reference to the threat of terrorism, they will be suspicious.
And here are a couple of articles relating to climate change:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/28/climate-change-senate-national-security?CMP=AFCYAH
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091028/tuk-climate-change-to-hit-food-prices-6323e80.html
I was walking the streets of Swansea just the other day, seeing all the new mothers with their offspring, and I couldn't help seeing reproduction as an almost military thing, part of a tactic of genetic occupation of resources from a particular DNA tribe. To have children is, as I have said before, to stake one's claim in genetic immortality. However, it is a claim that is contested – by all the other DNA tribes also reproducing. Reproduction, in very simple terms, is a war for resources. Affluent couples are like affluent nations. They know they can secure a bigger share of the world's finite resources for their children.
That's all it is, folks. That's all it is. Reproduction is war.
Walking back to the car park from Swansea town centre, I stopped to let a mother pass with her child in a push-chair. Instinctively, I apologised, in what should be the normal British manner, when there is any hesitation or confusion over 'right of way'. She stared at me wordless and insolent, and pushed her precious load onwards. This is the way it always seems to happen. Reproduction is not seen as an act of selfishness that must be indulged, but as something that confers on the breeder some greater social rank, some greater entitlement, as if we should all care about that person's scrabble for genetic immortality as much as they do. The vanity, the conceit and the tyranny of family values!
Nice Page !
Thank you.
I do feel that by not having children, I will be making a sort of cosmic blunder. I feel that way about a lot of things, in fact. I often get the impression that there is a kind of secret, Machiavellian game in progress, that everybody except me is in on — and they are winning it, effortlessly.
Originally posted by anonymous:Would having children also feel like a cosmic blunder for you?Good question. Probably. Damn it, the odds are really stacked against me here!
Cap writes:Would having children also feel like a cosmic blunder for you?
I do feel that by not having children, I will be making a sort of cosmic blunder. I feel that way about a lot of things, in fact. I often get the impression that there is a kind of secret, Machiavellian game in progress, that everybody except me is in on — and they are winning it, effortlessly.There’s a story called ‘Egnaro’ by M. John Harrison, and the opening line is, “Egnaro is a secret known to everyone but yourself.” I do know the feeling.I’ve just read this:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/oct/28/live-without-moneyInteresting the different responses in the comments.Someone there quotes David Attenborough as follows:”Ive never seen a problem that wouldnt be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.”I’ve tried finding an official source for the quote, but haven’t yet. I found this instead:http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/18/2689697.htmThe quote is expanded a little in the comments there as follows:”Ive never seen a problem that wouldnt be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more. Population is reaching its optimum and the world cannot hold an infinite number of people”I think, with overpopulation, there is simply no getting around the fact that, if we have any choice at all, then it is a choice between prevention and cure. Prevention will be relatively painless and chosen. Cure will be forced upon us and will be very painful indeed.
Er… ‘portraited’? My brain is decaying.
Quentin! You can’t go round seeing other humans as a mere drain on the food supply.Well, in all fairness, I see me as a drain on the food supply, too. That is, until the day I become food myself.Am I currently writing you an e-mail? I suppose it depends on which Michael you are (just in the middle of an e-mail, you see). It’s all right – no need to let on your true identity.Reflect that the child in the push-chair may be another Morrissey, Annette Funicello, Dare Wright, Kodagain or Quentin S Crisp.This was promising to be a very beautiful sentence until the last name on the list.Please go on being polite to proud mothers rather than hissing at them in the street. Oh… all right, then.Technology may increase our resources before things become too grim. There are still vast tracts of the Earth that are underpopulated. And perhaps one day there will be Outer Space for us to spread our wings in.Yes, but what about the grim picture portraited by Elton John and Bernie Taupin?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0ITerrifying!
Michael writes:Quentin! You can’t go round seeing other humans as a mere drain on the food supply. I feel the same when my nieces and nephews raid my biscuits but it really isn’t healthy. Reflect that the child in the push-chair may be another Morrissey, Annette Funicello, Dare Wright, Kodagain or Quentin S Crisp. Please go on being polite to proud mothers rather than hissing at them in the street. Technology may increase our resources before things become too grim. There are still vast tracts of the Earth that are underpopulated. And perhaps one day there will be Outer Space for us to spread our wings in.
Morrissey, Annette Funicello, Dare Wright, Kodagain .I just want to bask, once again, in this glorious combination.