Another argument for antinatalism is the deterministic nature of social reality. When most people think of human choices, they generally have a very broad range of how humans can conduct their lives. However, we are not as free as we would like to think. Societal forces move humans to really only a relatively small number of options due to the inherent dangers, unpleasantness, and opportunity costs involved in doing more radical "fringe" activities. Thus we really are "condemned" to certain fates.
Let us look at an example:
Scenario 1.) Person 1 is forced to be a middle manager at a widget company selling widget parts, and was forced to work there by an evil mastermind who has somehow manipulated, extorted, and threatened person1 into being this middle manager. Let us not get into the detail of how this can even happen as this is simply to illustrate a point. Most of us would consider this a bad situation, and immoral by the evil mastermind to force person 1 into this choice of middle manager.
Scenario 2.) Person 1 is forced to be a middle manager at a widget company selling widget parts and was not forced by an evil mastermind. Rather, this person tried to make it as a rock star and painter- his true passions but failed miserably as there was a poor economy, and no one was frankly interested in his music or art. The person went to college to be an astrophysicist, but dropped out due to too many F's- he just couldn't hack it in advanced calculus. After college, the person needed to "strike it on their own" to seek their own independence and basically not look like a bum to the other sex by staying with parents. Frankly, the parents wouldn't want their child to live off their bill anymore anyways. Person 1 needs to find a job to live on his own. He finds a "death-of-a-salesman" job with low base pay and some commission- the only thing he can find without running out of many. He finds a cheap rental in a shady area of town and works for 20 years up the sales ranks, until he makes it to middle management. Every day is a slog- he didn't know how he got to where he was, but he knew little decisions along the way, and the necessity to live, pay bills, and move forward without dying of starvation and exposure was responsible. He hates his life, he cannot move out without lowering his standard of living. He knows it is a choice, but not a real choice.
Anyways, this exercise is to show, that really being born is not much different than being forced at gunpoint by the evil mastermind. Scenario 1 might look like there are less choices for Person 1, so immoral, because it was forced, but really Scenario 2 becomes, in its own way, just as forced as scenario 1 because the reality of life de facto makes decisions go a certain way. We are forced, by the social reality of having to survive and navigate in a social world with many contingent factors, to do things that we would not want to do otherwise.
Having a child forces situations and de facto undesirable choices on a human. We are not as free as we think.
I enjoyed this post. It is (unfortunately) rare for people to consider the horrors that are likely to befall their children before begetting them. Among these are the pressures that apply to us in virtue of our biological constitutions and sociocultural contexts. Rarely are we doing what we want to do; we are instead doing what we have been made to believe will give us the freedom, means, or whatever, to do what we want to do. And, as you point out in your post, the latter frequently fails to pan out as hoped. Rather, we find ourselves struggling to do only that which will let us persist in this life. We come to find that there was never any real opportunity to lavish in the riches that were held just over our heads since birth, waiting to be taken. That lie was put into our heads to goad us along in this life, until the routines are internalized, after which no hope is needed; the inertia has set in at that point, to keep the masses slogging along until death.
ReplyDelete"he hates his life, he cannot move out without lowering his standard of living. he knows it is a choice, but not a real choice"
ReplyDeletei guess there's still an options left. lowering his standards & suicide
but yes, you're basically right. one has only a tiny bit of influence over one's life in society.
someone put it like this:
"when desire is obedience, autonomy manifests first as renunciation. when shopping till you drop is obedience, autonomy manifests first as voluntary
poverty. "
-by r..., https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/antisexuality/alt.magick/_Nj8gPim9w0/hzw34Nc6XbsJ
This is awesome. I concur with this post.
ReplyDeleteYou should allow anonymous comments.
ReplyDelete