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