In response to "In Germany, a Tradition Falls, and Women Rise."
It is time for traditional family values to be torn down and new traditions established. It is time to usher in a new era of global consciousness. No longer can people disregard the real problems that face this world (environmental, ethical, poverty, etc...) in the name of "tradition." As John Travolta once so eloquently stated, it is time to "notify the mayor motherfucker!."
I was recently engaged in a heated debate with regards to my decision to be a pescetarian in which my fellow debater made the outlandish claim that eating of meat is "tradition," and thus validating our right to eat animals. This person went on to claim that all traditions are good -- i will not attack that claim here, as I assume it is quite obvious how abhorrently wrong and close-minded that statement is -- but it is the perpetual insistence and continued reaffirmation of established traditions that are at times so troubling. One of these traditions is the production of family lineage (i.e. MAKING BABIES). Now I do not want to suggest that having children is wrong, but having too many (more than 2 I believe) displays a complete disregard for global consciousness (the concept that your actions will effect not only yourself and your immediate surroundings, but the world at large).
Logic tells us that if birthrates continue to rise faster than the rate of global deaths, we will create a greater need for the consumption of food and energy -- not only the consumption of energy, but the production of harmful waste (CO2) as well. With our climate already in peril (just look at the number, and more importantly the force, of recent natural disasters) we do not need to produce more humans at such a drastic rate. The current global population is roughly 6.5 billion and statistics suggest that number will only rise with our current trends.
There are two ways to tackle this problem and one of them feeds into the greatest fear in the history of mankind, which also happens to be the root of the creation of one of the greatest calamities of all time, Religion. That fear is death. This next statement will sound insensitive, but it is true. We need more people to die. We need to curb our rate of human growth.
Now, our fear of death has fueled the creation of many institutions (I'm thinking of religion here...yes, don't worry, Religion will be a prevalent topic on this blog in later columns), but it is time for our fear of death to fuel the awareness and the promotion of the aforementioned abstract idea -- "global consciousness." Another way to tackle this problem of human population growth is to have less kids. I am not suggesting that we go the way of China and REQUIRE by law how many kids a family can have, because I believe that when most humans are told to do something without first engraining it in social behavior it only leads to social unrest and the temptation to do the exact opposite of what they are told. But just as it has become tradition for many people (my mother is one of six children from a midwestern American family) to have more than 2 children (Octamom go jump off a cliff please you insensitive twat) it is time for it to become tradition for families to have 2 children or less. The bottom line is that it is extremely selfish to put others (the world) at risk just because you may want to have that extra child -- just because you think that extra kid will save your marriage -- just because you want to have a son to carry on that ever so small hope that they may one day play in the NBA (oops, that was a personal anxiety there) -- just because your mother and father had five children and you think for some asinine reason that a large family will pay homage to them. (Jesus I hate the phrase "just because"). Possible Solution: As Benhold's statistics suggest in her article, the more that women work, the less kids they have (Yea Sweden!). Any type of proposal for how to do this is too lengthy for this column.
However, I am sick and tired of certain topics labeled as insensitive for discussion in the Public realm. Example number one: WHY is it that if you question one's faith it is as if you have violated someone's existence! Religion needs to be thrust into the realm of public debate (thank you Richard Dawkins). There is overwhelming evidence that displays the fragility of any argument that attempts to defend the use of religion. But I digress...enough religious debate here. If Global Warming continues to dominate public discussion, then realistic answers to the rate of global population growth must become more prevalent as well. The reality is that global population growth and global warming go hand in hand. It is humans that have destroyed the environment. Yes, this might sound elementary, but maybe if we create less, we will harm less...
Germany has given us hope that traditions can be overturned. More importantly, as Germany thwarts tradition, their birthrates have fallen as well. As is evident by the third graph in "The Female Factor - In Germany, a Tradition Falls, and Women Rise," America is the biggest culprit of high birthrates. As the largest culprit, Americans have a responsibility to redefine traditional family values and usher in a new era of global consciousness. This is not a Religious or Political issue -- this is a Human issue.
