Here is a list of things that I think everyone should realize, but would probably be healthier and happier without knowing.
1. Just as this comic strip points out, humanity is eventually going to be screwed. Even with technological advances, the we're eventually going to run out of the means to provide for them all, and history is full of examples of what happens when a society runs out of enough food or water. It's not pretty. Of course, if people stopped having so many babies, this could be averted, but that's unlikely. Besides, a negative-growth birth rate brings its own set of problems as a small work working class supports a glut of elderly retirees. Sure, those problems would only last a generations as opposed to bringing on another thousand years of the Dark Ages at best, but, you know, you can't let the economy falter.
2. Stupid people vote.
3. You're probably not that special or important. Seriously, if you aren't the best in the world at something or can't at least compete with someone at that level, you can be replaced.
4. Your kid probably isn't all that special either.
5. Everyone dies in the end.
9 comments:
Number 2 is the one that bothers me the most, I think.
But, ironically, when I think about disturbing things like 1-4, then 5 seems more a comfort than a bother. Because, 5 gives me the perspective that 1-4 just aren't as important as we think.
Life is short. You choose how to spend it. :)
I like what ZenMom said. I'll die one day, so 1-4 are only temporary problems.
I tend to agree with ZenMom. Death isn't really that scary to me.
Still, the only one that actually bothers me is #1. It terrifies me to think what E will have to put up with because of his parents', grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations did and didn't do. I don't think I'd care about this if I'd never become a father because everyone I cared about would be pretty much dead around the same time otherwise.
But the real question is whether or not there's a problem with me in that if I filed my posts in categories that I would have considered this post comedy? I actually got a chuckle out of writing it.
If there's something wrong with you, you're not alone, because I "heard" the chuckle in your writing.
So, hey, at least if you're wrong, you're still in god company. ;)
Geez. Happy posting much? I guess school is back in session.
Anywho... I don't have to worry about #1 at this point because I don't have a child. I just do what I can to make things better but with not real consequences at this time.
As to #2 - that why we have an electorate system - in case people start voting for what plants crave.
You just made me think about a paper I read regarding the Chinese government's one kid policy. Bet they didn't see all the problems that are now being incurred by their policy. One of the biggest problems is that they're only having boys and killing/abandoning the girls. The result is a skewed population with men kidnapping women to become their wives.
The Chinese problem is a combination of problems. The one-child policy is the direct cause of the gender imbalance, but the true cause of it has nothing to do with one child. The real cause is the entrenched preference for boys in that culture. If the US had established a one-child policy, I doubt this would happen.
What would happen regardless of cultural gender preferences is that once the first generation of one-child policy children became the bulk of the workforce and their parents were retiring, social systems would be strained like they are in Japan where there were few children even without draconian laws. Still, this seems to be a much less problematic future than overpopulation would cause.
I think I realize all 5 of those things and it does make me happier. Except #2. Which is what is wrong with democracy.
Post a Comment