Voluntary Human Extinction

Fascinating!

There was an article in the NY Times recently about the founder of this movement.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html

This is the website:

https://www.vhemt.org

I had not heard of this movement before…  

All you have to do is choose not to have children (or limit the number?)…  

Interesting to me as I have 2 sons, one son is married, and they have no interest in having children.   

My other son has a long-term girlfriend, living together for some time, might as well be married, who, to my currently knowledge, are “on the fence” about having children.  

I won’t list what I think is going on through their minds, I assume they have at least some of the same reasons that are foremost concerns for many of their currently fertile generations: 

1 – Kids are expensive, estimated lifetime costs of $250-500,000, including childcare costs and scarcity, various costly lessons kids take part in, possibly sending them to college, and all the more worrisome, within a climate of repeated episodes of economic uncertainty.  

2 – Both partners may have fulfilling career paths, and neither wishes to curtail a career with primary childcare responsibilities.  

3 – Worries that climate change, and resultant dangers of fire and flood, may create a world that would be unsafe for their children.  

4 – Having a child is just not an interesting endeavor.  To bring up children well, takes a lot of time, along with both physical and emotional energy.  

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-millennials-birth-fertility-rate-declining-fewer-babies-2022-1#others-just-arent-interested-in-having-kids-a-sentiment-thats-become-a-lot-more-socially-acceptable-in-recent-years-5

I’ll add here another that I have witnessed in others:

5 – Family history of abuse or neglect, or history of medical or psychiatric problems, worries that they might perpetuate these behaviors or pass on risky genetics.  

More here:  

https://defendernetwork.com/lead-story/intelligent-reasons-millennials-arent-kids/

To be a little more revealing, I had these 2 sons with my first wife.  My current wife has 2 daughters.  My wife’s 2 daughters each have a child, so, how nice for me, I get to be a grandfather to them.  

Also, for the past 2 years my wife and I now have a surrogate “child” together, also known as a dog…  

My wife takes lead responsibility for the pup, by mutual agreement.  

Dogs also are expensive and take a lot of time and energy to bring up correctly.  

Like right now, when he is whining for attention.   

I asked my wife for a list of what she thought were reasons currently fertile adults do not wish to have children, perhaps not that different from above:  

1 – Fear of the unknown, lack of hope for the future, the world is unsafe, effects of climate change, social violence.

2 – Some level of narcissism, or perhaps self-centeredness.    

3 – History of parental abuse or neglect, with fear of not knowing how to create a loving family.  

4 – Family history of medical or psychiatric conditions.  

My wife always knew she wanted to be a mother…  

I grew up feeling I was supposed to have kids…  

Perhaps I listened to my parents…  

Both my parents were survivors of the Jewish Holocaust, I heard them say that surviving and having children were their revenge on the Nazi’s attempt at annihilating the Jews.  

As I have written previously:  

“I like to think of myself as a meliorist, one who believes that the world becomes better with time and humans can aid in its benefit.” 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/04/conversations-with-dog-chapter-10.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliorism

I feel that we are an embodiment of Source, we are the hands and eyes of Source…

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/12/what-is-consciousness.html

Maybe I am being a little more snarky here:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/05/our-vision.html

I believe that when we have children, we embody more of Source.  

My wife added, “we also get to witness more Source!”

You can argue with me, that is not necessarily a good thing… 

I respect that.  

That is the argument of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.  

I can only reiterate that I believe deeply in the potential for the best parts of human existence.  

I believe we have the potential for ever increasing kindness and compassion, and that the continuance of human existence will be more beautiful over time…    

Namaste  

A Reinterpretation of “The 5 Aggregates”

Perhaps can be seen as a blasphemous effort, if you are a strict Buddhist.   

But then again, I am a self-designated Heretic…  

Reading this quarter’s Tricycle, Winter 2022, page 47, on Annatta. 

There is a Hindu concept of Atman, “the essential part of the self” that “is immaterial and indestructible.”  Buddhism, rejects this concept, “and posits instead a foundational concept of anatman” (in Pali annatta) or non-self.   That “The functions associated with a self, such as thoughts and emotions, “exist” in the sense that they happen, but it is a projection of our language and imagination to say further that a solid entity, a spiritual essence, an unchanging substance or a transcendent energy therefore “exists” as something beyond these occurences.”  

No augment there, I’m a big fan of that concept that there is no clear existence of a “small s self,” i.e., my interpretation is there is only a “Big S Self,” as in “All-That-Is” and “All-That-Is-Not.”  

So, what are the 5 Aggregates?  

According to this article, and I have not read widely in the Buddhist literature about these Aggregates, relying on this article alone… 

1-Bodies unfold, as a transient material configuration, within a changing material environment.  

2-Feelings, of pleasure and pain, arise and fall away, due to circumstances (whatever they mean by “circumstances”).  

3-Mind, perceptually interprets the information flowing in on the senses, to create stories. 

4-Emotional responses take place at every moment, resulting in volitional actions.  

5-Awareness of this unfolds in a stream of conscious moments.  

I agree in general, however, seems a bit too complicated and redundant.  

As I am a fan of parsing concepts down to three’s, let see what I came up with…

I won’t change number 1, much, I like that in general, will just change the wording:   

1-Bodies Change.  They are a constantly changing material configuration, within a changing material environment.  

We will refrain for defining what is this “material.”   We can talk about scientific observations that support the existence of concepts such as “molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles,” but we and everything may actually just be a holograph:

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8847863/holographic-principle-universe-theory-physics

https://www.quantamagazine.org/symmetries-reveal-clues-about-the-holographic-universe-20220112/

2-Mind Interprets.   Sensations arise in the body, from internal and external stimuli, which are then interpreted in the mind as feelings and emotions.  The mind then makes up stories, and the body performs actions based on these stories.  

Many studies support this concept.  The simplest example is the clinical use of propranolol, a beta blocker, to relieve anxiety, such as before public speaking.  Propranolol only blocks the increases in heart rate and peripheral shaking which occurs when people are fearful, by stopping the body reactivity, the mind feels it is less anxious.   

3-Awareness Occurs.  

There is only Pure Awareness.   

Everything else, are just made-up concepts, such as “The Witness,” or that we think we have a “self” that has awareness of felt sensations in the body and awareness of emotions and feelings in the mind.  These are just the flow of Pure Consciousness, “All-That-Is” and “All-That-Is-Not,” as is interpreted by this animal brain-body.  

So let us summarize:  

1-Bodies Change.  

2-Mind Interprets.   

3-Awareness Occurs.  

Now isn’t that simpler….

Time to meditate further 

        washing away all concepts 

                                basking in 

Pure Awareness…  

Namaste