As another year ends, the third after the “plandemic” (but not really because this “virus” doesn’t recognize its exaggerated demise and what, again, is that new variant?) and folks are still fighting going back into the office.
Nobody wants to be there.
Nobody.
Yet employers refuse to recognize that.
It’s easier/better/preferable to just live at work/work from home than return to the old, pre-plan ways.
Work gets done, productivity stays pretty much wherever it was, Zoom meetings are as effective/relevant/necessary as an actual in-person … the only thing missing is office drama, added costs ($4 coffee, the $16 salad), and the commute.
With gas eleventy-hunnert bucks a gallon, we don’t talk about that.
Although there supposedly is a crisis of loneliness in the US, it is obvious (to me, at least) that people don’t really like each other, and are in no rush to spend an extended part of their day/lives trapped in a climate-controlled concrete structure with familial strangers.
Proof? There’s a baby bust in the US.
And around the world, for that matter.
South Korea leads the fray with 0.78 children per female, and most of the world is not far behind, with many women in many countries producing children below the replacement rate of 2.1 (what’s a tenth of a kid?), altho’ the women of Niger (pronounced ‘Neh-jair’, for you Horsemen heathens – heh) are still spurting out roughly 6-7 kids per, so there’s that.
But Niger is also largely Islamic/Muslim, with the girls kept undereducated, overly pregnant, and crushingly poor, which likely explains the high birth rate. That, and women there don’t serve much of a purpose beyond breeding/housekeeping. Boko Haram, indeed.
Speaking of religious fundamentalists, the Quiverfull are doing their part by keeping the women pregnant, nursing, homeschooling, sexually available, socially isolated and wholly dependent.
Which isn’t a bad thing, if you’re into that. But methinks the girls in the fam don’t have much in the way of options … Kind of a “my body, his choice” movement.
There was a short little documentary about a village somewhere in Greece (Italy? samesame) where a single 11-year-old boy attended school … no other kids, no other students, just him. The teacher had lesson plans and recess and activities just for this kid, and it was a sad things, all the sads.
For him, not to me … well sorta but not really.
Which is to say what, exactly?
Just that people suck, but – apart from landlocked African nations and the Quiverfull, we (the collective human we) seem to be getting the point.
About 20 percent of US men and 40 percent of US women are declining work at the baby factory, although an estimated extra 32,000 pregnancies resulted in live births since Dobbs.
In other news, adoption agencies and the foster care system are beginning to collapse under the additional strain of unwanted/unplanned tiny people. See: law of unintended (or maybe intended … anti-choicers hate afterborn kids, too) consequences.
An Italian politician recently blathered on about women being able to live out their dreams but to have kids first.
Ummm … contradiction much?
Methinks what much/many of these politicians neglect to recognize, likely intentionally, is that the world is not a kid- or parent-friendly place. Rather, we have many FES insist that women give birth while simultaneously slashing the social safety net, refusing to legislate a living wage, and fighting against universal health care.
Ummm … contradiction much?
Methinks that those venerable masters of mankind are not doing enough to make modern life worth living. And the stress cracks are beginning to show.
The Japanese even have a specific term for … self-deletion: hara-kiri, or seppuku. Considered more honorable to off oneself than live with shame. A bit extreme, but effective.
Death before dishonor … better to die standing than live prone … all that.
A former work colleague said that in many Asian cultures self-deletion was a form of protest … death removes the government’s right/ability to govern the individual. Huh. Yet again … a bit extreme, but nevertheless effective. Begs the question tho’: how does one win?
Saw a video not too long ago by a guy who said he decided not to have kids simply because he couldn’t recommend life, particularly to someone he is expected to love. He said his life was fine (I’m fine / it’s fine / everything’s fine) but there was no aspect of life that made him want to inflict it on someone else.
That seems … painfully profound.
Which brings me to … the Nihilism Party.
Slogan: Let It End With Us.
Mascot: Planet Earth.
Not just a national political party, but a global one, dedicated to … limiting the impact and proliferation of humans on the planet. Unite the incels, the herbivores, the childfree, MGTOW, MFs, and WWOM …
A type of global protest against the conditions imposed by the parasitic classes … the wealthy, the corporate, the governance.
Since you (the collectively corrupt, masters of mankind you) don’t want to make the world a better place, then the world will be better without us. A few party platforms —
Rigorous birth control / sterilization is the norm.
Low to no taxes / limit the ability of government to create and maintain the infrastructure.
Active pollution / abandon the green economy and renewables
hasten the destruction of the environment and accelerate climate change.
Encourage hedonistic living and lifestyle / live for today, for tomorrow is doomed. Take a selfie!
Many of those with a breeding bent like to quote Scripture “be fruitful and multiply” {Genesis 9:1} but that was the directive to Noah & his kin in the Old Testament, right after the Flood. Paul counsels in the New Testament that abstinence and celibacy are actually better {1 Corin. 7:1} because then one can devote one’s focus to/on/about GOD.
Eight billion is more than enough, and some will always breed.
But otherwise … Let It End With Us.
The essential message: Unless/until the masters of mankind make the conditions of life worth living, the individual is justified in taking steps to free those future generations from the debt of life.
Oh, and Happy New Year.