In praise of German women
Apparently 30% of German women are now choosing not to have children - a figure which rises to 40% amongst university educated women. This seems to create panic amongst the political class, but is it really all that suprising? It seems fully understandable that educated, intelligent women, leading enjoyable and fulfilling lives, don't want to ruin them with 9 months of discomfort and pain, several years of cleaning up someone elses shit, then even more years of subordinating their own lives to those of a mewling brat or a petulant adolescent.
Futhermore, there are plenty of good reasons for not having children. The planet is over-populated with humans as it is, all demanding more resources to consume. Why add to that burden? And is it even moral to bring another consciousness into existence? People are unhappy for most of their lives - I'd guess about 80%. Our time is spent trying to find ways to blot that out - how can anyone justify inflicting that on anyone else?
Finally, of course, we suffer the pandemic of behooded, gun-toting youths, rampaging across our towns and cities, mugging, raping and murdering all that cross their paths. Put together, along with other factors, we can call these issues The Child Problem. However, I have a solution. My, as yet unwritten, manifesto - "Towards a child-free utopia" spells it out. Compulsory sterilisation for everyone living in the UK. Combined with a completely free immigration policy for anyone over the age of 21, provided they consent to be sterilised, too. That way, within a small number of years, the country will be entirely child-free, and the money saved in educating, protecting and punishing them can be put to use making life more tolerable for adults. I can't see a flaw in it, myself.
Futhermore, there are plenty of good reasons for not having children. The planet is over-populated with humans as it is, all demanding more resources to consume. Why add to that burden? And is it even moral to bring another consciousness into existence? People are unhappy for most of their lives - I'd guess about 80%. Our time is spent trying to find ways to blot that out - how can anyone justify inflicting that on anyone else?
Finally, of course, we suffer the pandemic of behooded, gun-toting youths, rampaging across our towns and cities, mugging, raping and murdering all that cross their paths. Put together, along with other factors, we can call these issues The Child Problem. However, I have a solution. My, as yet unwritten, manifesto - "Towards a child-free utopia" spells it out. Compulsory sterilisation for everyone living in the UK. Combined with a completely free immigration policy for anyone over the age of 21, provided they consent to be sterilised, too. That way, within a small number of years, the country will be entirely child-free, and the money saved in educating, protecting and punishing them can be put to use making life more tolerable for adults. I can't see a flaw in it, myself.
9 Comments:
Nothing wrong with your policy proposals, Puskas. But I do disagree with your happiness quotient. I'm usually happy (50% - 90% of the time). Yes, I have a lot of distractions, but I'm actually happy being distracted. It's the whole point of art and entertainment.
Sorry? I grant you, most of the current crop is calibrated to keep us supplied with surrogate satisfaction that will see us through the revolving doors come Monday morning- but surely, you can't mean to say that this is its ONLY function?
P, where did you read that? I read that, in this country too, 25% of women born in the 1970s will not bother to have children. That's a huge amount and I wondered if the statistic was wrong but the figure came from some kind of government demographic office. It's something that's been on my mind as two friends have become pregnant recently, but even more so because it's the time of year to apply for jobs. Will prospective employers be put off by my age, erroneously assuming I'll soon be taking maternity leave? Do people still think this way? - I bet they do!
I wouldn't mind a child in the same way that I wouldn't mind a black labrador puppy... However, it seems extremely unlikely and I genuinely believe it's not something to be too remorseful about. It's probably a blessing in disguise. You have to go through all that shite about making sure your house is in the right catchment area to get them to a half decent school, they need a mobile phone at the age of seven, a playstation 2, endless dental/doctor's appointments messing up your day, driving lessons, bankrolling through university, a deposit for a flat, etc etc. Another 'percentage' statistic: by the time they reach adulthood and get jobs, only 10% of children currently in primary school will be able to get on the housing ladder.
By any measure you care to mention, this is not a good era to have children.
Didn't you have a 'Puskas for Pope' blog, a while back?
Eradicate alpha courses and small children - increase the availability of kebabs and contraception. I feel you are on to something!
Neil - You're deluding yourself. It's all shit.
Brindlecats - I really don't understand your point. The current crop of what?
Plymouth - The figures regarding German women having children were in the Guardian. The figures regarding happiness that Neil challenged, I merely estimated from my own experience. And I did have a post about applying for the pope gig a while back. I fear someone else has it, now.
Off the top of my head, a few reasons to be happy:
1. Principally, friends. With the powers available to us through language, we can express our reactions to the world in a way that others can understand and respond sympathetically to. Over a period of years.
2. Our functioning senses, worth more than any amount of money. (How much would the rental or ownership value be? More than a mortgage?)
3. Pubs to meet your friends in and drink beer.
4. Piping hot water that gushes out of a showerhead, even though it’s January. (Take a minute to imagine life before hot water.)
5. The availability of a huge variety of food from all round the world only a few minutes’ walk away from where you live.
6. Free downloads, blogs, and the whole circus of the internet at your fingertips.
7. Books, books, books to lose yourself in.
8. More than half your life (probably) left to experience these things. How much of his absurd fortune would Sir Elton John, say, pay to be in his mid-30s?
Yes, I know there's another side to all these coins - principally, everyone who's excluded from these pleasures. We also have the privilege to go and do something about this, even just by joining anti-poverty campaigns.
Life is beautiful, innit? My reply to Nietzsche's daemon is "yes - every moment again!"
P, I meant the current crop of what passes for art.
The function of art is a whole different discussion. I think it's mostly there to entertain and to give us all something to talk about. To save us from ennui!
Neil, following your point (6):
"Sounds of the Sixties" available on 'listen again' - at any time of the day or night. Now there's a reason to be cheerful.
Puskas, was at a party last night when the following exchange took place. A woman (slightly full of herself but a nice girl) was chatting away. Someone asked her a question and she replied "Is the Pope a Catholic?!" The person who asked, replied "Well, the most recent one isn't". It was so unexpected, everyone went quiet momentarily and had to think about it. Quite funny.
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