Cav's Place

I’ve been repeating this so many times I find it quite surprising that I haven’t made it into a post yet. Realized it some time ago, when I meant to send it as a message to someone, but since I didn’t send the message I didn’t write the post either, so I’m finally getting around to it now. And I’ll also include a link I’m surprised I haven’t included yet, to that article by David Benatar that I also tend to point people to when I say this, and maybe sometimes not only then.

To get right to it… Life is suffering, and then you die, which if the rational viewpoint is correct means that all the suffering is pointless, while if the spiritual one is correct likely means that even more suffering follows, one way or another. The only way to win this game is to not play it… But your entry is decided by others. Worse, instead of the terrible crime it actually is, at least for a thinking, feeling being under the current circumstances, that’s seen by them, as well as by society as a whole, as a great thing, and also something you should be deeply grateful for, the general understanding being that something must be wrong with you if you’re not.
In the past, though conditions were in fact much worse, maybe humanity’s overall lack of knowledge was something of an excuse, and the lack of education and reduced opportunities to train or even practice rational thought offered most people few chances to avoid falling prey to their basic instincts, and also to the manipulation of the forces that ruled and steered society. And there was also the lack of safe and reliable contraception, not to mention sterilization, for those who would have wanted it. On the other hand, there may be a theoretical chance that things could change, that a society and a world that’d actually be worth living in for a thinking, feeling being could somehow exist, if those of us who are already here would create it. But it definitely doesn’t exist now, and there are no indications that we’re even heading in that direction, in fact quite the opposite.
So why do we keep throwing people onto this world that we continue to recklessly trash, causing great harm to them and to the world as a whole, even now when we have both the knowledge and the means to do better, when those of us already here should dedicate ourselves to creating that world where life would truly be worth living, as improbable as it may be, and avoid creating any more people at all costs until and unless we’ll achieve that?