Antinatalism, or the will to not procreate due to the intense suffering and and the endless pain along with the occasional happiness that life bring's is termed as antinatalism.
Right from the child's birth, born into this world eyes shut and crying, the child's life begins with experience that would not be considered happy by any standards. From birth to death, life is full of suffering, death, breakups, tragedies, deceit, cheating, lying, killing, illness both physical and mental. Life is full of things we wouldn't want on our worst enemies, why then would one choose to give these experiences to their own blood, their children?
Antinatalism coincides with some of the original beliefs of Buddhism, which is that existence is suffering, and the best form of lasting peace and happiness is moksha, or the joining of ones consciousness with the universe, also known as Samädhi. This is achieved only thru the course of equalizing your good deeds and bad deeds in order to prevent yourself from endless Rebirth, also known as saṃsāra. Now one of the ways that this is achieved only through complete acceptance of the evil and the good, and being a neutral entity, having a third person perspective of life, until you cease to exist, preferably through Vipassana.
To a logical but sympathetic being , Antinatalism is a but obvious outcome that one arrives at after living in the world for a few years. People stive and struggle, go through shit that one would not willing ever choose to go through, just because they're born and there's nothing you can do about it otherwise. now that one is born, they enter the rat race, going through suffering, death, breakups, tragedies, deceit, cheating, lying, killing, and illness both physical and mental. And for What? To maximise shareholder value? to add another zero in a stock price of the next big company on this small ball of inexistant planet, while being paid peanuts and living paycheck to paycheck? What a waste.
Antinatalism believes in exiting this never ending cycle. It comprises of the DINKS ( Dual Income No Kids) The DINKWADs ( Dual Income No Kids, with a Dog), and the Ryan Goslings of the World. The trend of Antinatalism is more commonly seen among men than women, and usually with High IQs, and is seen more among diagnosed Psychopaths. and it is so much evident and increasingly growing. Declining fertility rates in developed nations testify towards the growing global popularity of anti-natalism as a useful practical tool if not as a systematic ideology or moral observance. And now it is also gaining traction in metropolitan centres of developing nations such as in India.
Antinatalism as a compassion-motivated ethical doctrine has spread in recent years through online fora, most notably the r/antinatalism subreddit community on Reddit, whose membership more than doubled in a single year from August 2019 to August 2020. Antinatalist awareness groups and pages have blossomed on Facebook in the past few years. Google Trends Analytics indicates that “antinatalism” as a search term has steadily grown in search volume in this decade. The ethical premise of anti-natalism runs along similar lines. An embryo’s consent cannot be sought. The human life being produced did not consent to be brought into existence. Add to this the very real and considerable prospect of the baby suffering some form of disorder, disability or impairment.
To sum it up, living is painful but dying is more so. The anti-natalist argues that it is thus humane to not materialise a consciousness, only for it to painfully disappear into the nil of the void again. We are so tied to life (obviously), that it’s hard to detach and look at it from a third-person perspective, questioning whether the romanticisation, glorification and aestheticisation of life as a beautiful gift, or even a moral duty, is always justified. Maybe having a child is akin to sculpting a sentient snowman on the last night of winter, or creating the ginger-bread man in a kitchen full of rats and mould?
The rise in anti-natalist belief appears to have coincided with growing awareness of climate change and the alarming growth of the probability of the near-future devastation of our planet. Now there’s the Covid-19 pandemic to contend with, accompanied by its own losses, dangers and threats. Just as Renaissance astronomers humbled humanity with their proof of heliocentrism, Covid-19 has caused us to bid adieu to our faith in individual as well as collective human exceptionalism.
Anti-natalism is often seen as a sensationalist stance, a fringe ideology assumed by desensitised, misanthropic radicals seeking the limelight. But it is perhaps the most empathy-driven and considerate of philosophical theories, with a simple yet profound insight. It is based in human experience and the heroic desire of not letting another go through the same suffering as yourself.
I for one would adopt a child and give them the good lifestyle and loving society and family have been blessed to have been born into. but given the choice, would choose to remain single than be with a partner adamant of having a child " of our own blood" because they're considered more "LOYAL" than adopted children, and bring the bloodline forward, Yeah like i belong to some Aryan race with perfect genetics , genius or some rare blood type that must be preserved. I'm Indian for gods sake, out of the 8 Billion, 1.4 billion are Indians, I promise you the world will be same if not better with me in it.
Perhaps it is time to reconsider our accountability towards our own species, whose unsustainable continuation we are conditioned to undertake as a duty. We are already exercising utmost caution to not pass on one potentially fatal, agonizing ailment to another human. What’s keeping us from preventing the communication of another: the most common and universal one, life itself?
Hello there, thank you for staying until the end of the first video of many philosophical discussions that I plan to post in the future.
This video has been a personal diary of sorts for me, i have been wrestling with the question of " To be or not to be" for quite some time, and personally believe in the concept of ending humanity and consciousness by choosing not to bring about new life as the biggest contribution one can do to get rid of human suffering, instead adopt and give existing life the least amount of pain and suffering that they would have gotten had they been an orphan.
And if you do feel the same in your life at one point of time too, let me know that I'm not going crazy in the comments below. or if you think this opinion is bullshit, and willful mass extinction is socially harmful, do let me know in the comments below. I plan to make a video discussing the arguments against antinatalsim next, play both sides of the chessboard, and Ill be sure to feature your opinion in my next video! thank you for watching! see you at The TMI Diaries until next time, This is your Host Husain Kapasi speaking.
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