I’m saying that I don’t see it that way. I am a communist because I am an optimist - if I was a nihilist, I wouldn’t bother investing myself in the notion of progress and improvement. My point is that, even if the malthusianists are right, I still do not recognize malthusianism as a valid reason against having children - they will have free will, they can do as they please. My guess, and my bet, is that, like me, they will appreciate being alive, in spite of its associated pains, and will feel empowered to rise to the challenges of whatever times they face.
Life is full of joys, and we are going to have to deal with large-scale economic and environmental changes in the next 100 years. Neither of those statements precludes the other. I am not going to deny the future generation the opportunity to exist because of my prisoner-of-the-moment paranoias about the future. If the malthusianists are correct, they can have the last laugh. I understand that people can also make valid individual decisions not to have children and I respect that 100%, but I find the wallowing in fear of the future exhausting, dispiriting, and counterproductive to the leftist cause, and I reject anti-natalism as a point of leftist philosophy.
I’m saying that I don’t see it that way. I am a communist because I am an optimist - if I was a nihilist, I wouldn’t bother investing myself in the notion of progress and improvement. My point is that, even if the malthusianists are right, I still do not recognize malthusianism as a valid reason against having children - they will have free will, they can do as they please. My guess, and my bet, is that, like me, they will appreciate being alive, in spite of its associated pains, and will feel empowered to rise to the challenges of whatever times they face.
Life is full of joys, and we are going to have to deal with large-scale economic and environmental changes in the next 100 years. Neither of those statements precludes the other. I am not going to deny the future generation the opportunity to exist because of my prisoner-of-the-moment paranoias about the future. If the malthusianists are correct, they can have the last laugh. I understand that people can also make valid individual decisions not to have children and I respect that 100%, but I find the wallowing in fear of the future exhausting, dispiriting, and counterproductive to the leftist cause, and I reject anti-natalism as a point of leftist philosophy.
That’s fair.