July 15, 2004

• Yup.
• I sense some oversimplification going on here.
• i like this one for folks who want children to take care of them in their old age: Save money and prepare for retirement. Be nice to people so they will visit you in the home. heh. signed, SideDish, happily childfree
• This site was obviously set up by super-intelligent cockroaches that which who wish to inherit the Earth when we are gone. Or possibly the "meek".
• The cockroaches want us to stay, for we are good providers and save then much labour by providing cockroach-friendly foods and breeding spaces. I think it must be aliens.
• If there aren't any children, who is going to look after the older generation? And who is going to pay for our food? Or do they intend to automate these tasks, too? Having protested that, I think they have the right idea. I'm off to shoot the kids, the wife, and then myself.
• Well, I can at least tell you that "that" isn't an option unless you want a restrictive clause. Are you wanting to make a distinction between super-intelligent cockroaches that want to inherit the earth and those that don't?
• ...also discussed here, here and here. I *love* the chart, especially...

  Reasons given: I just want to. Real reasons: Just wants to.

  Clarity of your own motives can be liberating.
• Bees and Freethought, you make good points. Which leads me to think that you are both super-intelligent cockroaches, out to trick me. I'M ON TO YOUR LITTLE GAME, MY LOVELIES!!!
• clearly, this website is sponsored by mormons, who endorse having as large a family as one can afford (or even if one can't afford in many cases). clearly they wish the remainder of us to go extinct by foregoing reproduction, while they build up a massive baby stockpile in utah, just waiting for us to keel over so that their spawn can spread to rule the world. either that or it's a thinly veiled attempt to trick dumb people into voluntarily removing themselves from the gene pool.
• Well, it worked on Skrik ;)
• I hope all of you with children are suitably ashamed. Now go to your rooms. You've been very naughty. Quidnunc, you too. Just because.
• Aw, poo :(
• No, Pete. There are times it's best to sit them on the couch in the living room. That way you can watch them. You don't know what they get up to in their rooms. Oh, never mind. In nine months you will.
• I guess I should mention that my MoFi hymen has been broken with this post. (Yes, this is my first post) Anyways, I did do a search for this site, but only in the threads, not in the thread comments. I'll watch out for that next time.
• I don't think it's been posted before, flying_w, just that we've had our nihilistic comments before . . . anyway, nice post!
• Mankind cannot bear too much sanity. /nihilistic comment for the day
• I'm terrified of having offspring (there, I said it!). And, even if I felt prepared now, I'd end up with teenagers' problems during my old age. And I'm not sure I'm the kind of person I'd like to see bringing up a child. Yes, I'm an immature, uncommiting male. I've been told it more than once. Even hearing and watching happy couples with beautiful, loved kids doesn't encourage me. Sigh. Yes, "Spread memes not genes" indeed.
• Jesus. You know, Pynchon was joking when he wrote that part of GR.
• flagpole, consider remaining child-free. i'm serious! how come no one ever takes me seriously when i say that? i do not have children. i have a wonderful, exciting, adventurous life with no financial worries. now, that said, let me state that i am NOT SUGGESTING PARENTS ARE EVIL. in fact, i admire the fact that they could take such a huge risk. i mean, come on, the kid could grow up and KNIFE YOU TO DEATH IN YOUR SLEEP.
• What Dish said. The world is popping with folks who want to breed. Why be an indifferent father when you can be an awesome uncle?
• I just don't want kids. I'm not scared of 'em, have no fear of commitment -- in fact I think I'd be an awesome dad if I had to. I just don't want any. I can't think of a single good reason, although I can think of many bad reasons. No thanks, I'll pass. Besides, I have plenty of nieces, nephews, and immature friends if I'm ever feeling paternal. The fact that my father had five kids at my age kinda freaks me out.
• Have lurked on some other groups like this, not VHEMT, but similar. My prime reason, which probably doesn't apply to many, is simply that I'd be a terrible parent. I don't have infinite patience, and you can mess up a kid forever with one ill-considered, snappish moment. I'd rather be alone than create one more miserable human who will have to deal with their psychological damage forever, and probably go on to create more damaged humans, and on and on amen. Knowing how I am as a depressive, I wouldn't want to visit that on anyone else. My, that was peppy! On the, err, upside, I love pets and I promise not to dress them up funny. And I make a pretty decent cousin/aunt. Anyway, something about the VHEMT's ideas seems off to me. "Yes, we care passionately, that's why we choose to sit around and angst rather than try to fix what's wrong. 40,000 kids die every day. Oh well." It's got a whiff of teen-angst poetry and more fatalism than I'm comfortable with. But I don't think that negates the larger issue; every group has its fringe, its PeTA, who may desperately mean what they say but also run the risk of making the rest of us look bad.
• (Actually, these folks seem pretty sane compared to some of the other groups out there.) This is a topic near and dear to my heart. It's all I can do some days to haul my own ass out of bed and into the daily toil. I'm certainly not organized or patient enough to be responsible for someone else. Being an aunt to my five fabulous nieces is the Best Job Ever, but I do admit to breathing a sigh of relief every time one grew out of the screaming-fits and gross-bodily-fluids phase.
• Isn't thie the same guy who made the " I Like to Watch " video ?
• Anybody else catch the link to this?
• It's a self-correcting world view, of course.
• Oh, Rodgerd, you are my hero. Monkeyfilter: It's a self-correcting world view, of course. BEST. TAGLINE. EVAR.
• Monkeyfilter: I sense some oversimplification going on here. Freethought, it was close, so close. This line qualifies you to sit at the right hand of the MonkeyGod. Monkeyfilter: It's all I can do some days to haul my own ass out of bed. Sorry, Wirwilf, that was a good line, but Rodgerd is now MonkeyGod. (You can sit somewhere, if you can find a chair.)
• From the photo captions: "Goin' Downtown" is Common Practice Among Bonobos at the San Diego Zoo
• I like to oversimplify practically everything I've ever posted on Monkeyfilter, so that tag-line suits me at least. I mean, I could drone on and on, but then my point will only be appreciated by the two people too bored to do anything but read pages and pages of dreadful prose. But I digress. I suppose I'll start thinking about marriage and babies and things like that, once I've gotten out of school, but it definitely isn't a worry for me now. I do think about these things, though. When I'm too bored to even read Monkeyfilter. We could probably do with less children in the world, but the West definitely needs kids to keep on existing, and we know the Third World won't stop popping out the kids (as that is what poverty does to a society). Thus, we should all just adopt. Honestly. Tons of kids need parents. So let's adopt. They need less people, we need more. We can even things out. Think of the booming baby trade!
• Think of the booming baby trade! but who would regulate it? free-market babies or government controlled toddlers? NYSE or NASDAQ? could I invest in a preselected lot of children and cash in when they're successful tax-payers? hmmmm...
• The world is not overpoulated, only certain segments of it. There's plenty of room in much of North America and Europe, and that's why we have immigration - because there's a need for more people and the locals aren't having enough kids. And if we could distribute the wealth a little more, the overpopulated parts of the world wouldn't be so bad, either. So go forth and multiply. And don't worry if you don't feel *ready* to be a parent. Nobody does. I sure as hell didn't. Your love for your kids will ensure you do the right things for them. Somebody had to stand up for the procreators around here!
• Imagine Earth without people
• The humbling - and perversely comforting - reality is that the Earth will forget us remarkably quickly. just like a woman!