It's weird.
I know a lot of women (my wife
included) who have remained childless by choice and I'm a little sad
to announce that these lovely and educated ladies are sometimes the
object of ridicule by the strange “traditional” family-values
cadre. Considering the rather dire straits that we find ourselves in,
due to over-population and willful and negligent environmental
devastation, I feel that this is not only ignorant and cruel, but
just plain backward thinking.
I understand that, as mammals, there
is a certain, small instinctual drive to procreate. I get that. But
it's no greater than the drive to kill and eat other animals, and
we've done a pretty good job curtailing that activity over the course
of history. There was a time when a male individual would just mount
the first female individual he saw whenever he got “the urge.”
Thank goodness we've evolved beyond that.
The major reason that the vast majority
of woman feel they need to continue to crank out children, is because
of religious conditioning and programming. There may have been a time
when it was logical to have children (mainly boys) so that you'd have
some help in your chosen field of work. Farms needed lots of hands.
So did blacksmithing. Same goes for ranching and sheepherding. These
people had children for “practical” reasons. In many, if not
most, cases this is no longer the case. But whatever religious
tradition you adhere to, you are encouraged to breed
indiscriminately. The more the better! The training starts at a very
young age and is never questioned by anyone. Little girls play with
dollies, but rarely do they play NFL owner or CEO. The subject of
happily choosing not have children is never even suggested. As a
woman, if you don't dream of having children, you're considered some
kind of freak.
Smart, intelligent, educated women have
myriad reasons for not getting involved in that lifelong commitment
of child bearing and raising. Some have aspirations of travel, which
is rendered difficult with small children. Some want to make a
difference in the world other than populating it. Whatever their
reasons, they don't deserve derision for making that choice. Hell, I
commend them for even knowing that the choice exists. Your religion
won't tell that to you. Or your school. Forget about hearing it from
your government. Did you know, these institutions have a vested
interested in making sure you have children? Preferably lots of them?
People with families are much easier to control. And by control, I
mean coerce. Your economic resources are spread thin, so that you
have very few options.You will do whatever you are told, because you
can't risk the health and safety of your family.
We don't really need any more people.
When was the last time you were driving in rush-hour traffic, or
walking through a mall and said to yourself, “You know, there just
aren't enough people.” I'm not trying to vilify the people who have
kids and families, but the #1 worst thing you can do environmentally
is have a child. The source of most of our modern ills, is
overpopulation and its cousin, thoughtless overconsumption.
Restaurants throw away approximately 30% of all of their food. The
figure is a little lower for personal households, but not much. In the
name of convenience we make cleaning products out of chemicals and
instead of cloth, we have to use paper products that can be thrown
away. But there is no away. I bring this up because the
biggest offender is disposable diapers.
I'm not saying don't have families. I'm
not saying people who have families are bad. All I'm saying is let's
start letting little girls know that it's okay to dream about things
other than becoming a baby factory. And let's start showing them that
it's alright to make other choices and maybe even wait. They have to
be educated in proper family planning (birth control), and encouraged
in pursuits other than gestating. Stop the tyranny of religion. It's
not necessary to have a baby to take some
Baby Steps...
