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(From: the post something before leaving for work and get royally flamed with no recourse dept.)
In response to yesterday's thread:
It seems to be a popular progressive attitude that the "responsible" thing to do is not to have kids.
There are a few problems with that.
Mainly a little inconvenient truth called cultural evolution. See it isn't just the genome that gets passed on, it is the family's culture and value system -- memes that build what we envision to be a responsible citizen and rational, compassionate adult. Yes, you say kids with backwards parents rebel and grow up progressive, but to rely on that is the epitome of pollyannaism. They still are saddled subconsciously with many of the psychological baggage that one accumulates when subjected to that bullcrap. Without peers that have progressive values from the start, there is no path of breadcrumbs to lead them from the ignorance forest, they have to wander out on their own.
And it is no foregone conclusion that they will. Progressive values are good common sense things that come from the heart, but after the books are burned or scuttled away into dusty shelves, they'll be no trace of progressivism; it will have to start all over from those roots. It will only grow to be a signifigant force if and when fascism makes a big enough mistake to create a power vacuum. That's a big "if" and a potentially long "when." And since the only people that seem to care about reducing population in ways other than war and facism are progressives, you can easily guess whether and how population will be controlled generations from now.
As the stark fact that our population grows not from Americans reproducing, but from immigration (legal and illegal) will attest, even the broods of cannon fodder produced by the right wing cannot keep pace with the drive to reproduce that other cultures exhibit. Again, it is not that an immigrant cannot or will not learn American values, just that those values take generations of reinforcement to reach their full effect and become ingrained as deeply as when they are held by parents and grandparents. (And not to say other cultures don't have some fine values as well.)
Do you really think the principles this country is supposed to work by (even if in practice we don't do so well these days) are so worthless as to abandon them to the ravages of time?
And as far as the environment goes, raise your kids to be better stewards of the earth. It takes so few habits to reduce one's consumption and so few lessons to learn to value nature. Are you so completely under-confident in your ability to produce a person that will work to save this planet? Can you not see any way of having a kid that has a net positive effect on the environment?
A human being is a very powerful and resourceful thing. If you don't make the next generation one that will ply those powers to reverse the destruction of nature, who will? The bible thumpers down the road? Slim chance there -- stewardship may be a Christian value but for the brainwashed the most repeated lie is the one believed, and we have seen industry's capacity to generate dogma.
The poor struggling immigrants down the street? No, sorry. They have other worries. I am sure they love America dearly but they have very basic financial problems to work through, probably are equally concerned about the politics of their country of origin, and their families will be "off balance" as far as shouldering the burden of passing on American culture for a generation or two to come. They will eventually do it, if that culture is still around and treats them well.
But for now that burden falls to you. And if you just don't think you're parent material, that's fine, but appreciate those who create the next progressive generation (and those who teach them too) and give our culture staying power. I'm not a parent yet, but do, luck permitting, intend to be someday, and even as a very concerned environmentalist, I see that as the moral choice.
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