Purist Absurdity

Steyn's article on demographics this week includes this entertaining opener:

This is the time of year, as Hillary Rodham Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate "the birth of a homeless child" – or, in Al Gore's words, "a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child."

Just for the record, Jesus wasn't "homeless." He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time, and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic overregulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare that it's surely only a matter of time before Massachusetts or California reintroduce it.

But the point is: The Christmas story isn't about affordable housing. Joseph and Mary couldn't get a hotel room – that's the only accommodation aspect of the event. Sen. Clinton and Vice President Gore are overcomplicating things: Dec. 25 is not the celebration of "a homeless child," but a child, period.

The article focuses the new "progressive trend" towards equating all perceived environmental degradation and decline with the human race. What to do about this phenomenon?

Last week, in the Medical Journal of Australia, Barry Walters went further: To hell with this wimp-o pantywaist "voluntary" child-reduction. Professor Walters wants a "carbon tax" on babies, with, conversely, "carbon credits" for those who undergo sterilization procedures. So that'd be great news for the female eco-activists recently profiled in London's Daily Mail who boast about how they'd had their tubes tied and babies aborted in order to save the planet. "Every person who is born," says Toni Vernelli, "produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases and adds to the problem of overpopulation." We are the pollution, and sterilization is the solution. The best way to bequeath a more sustainable environment to our children is not to have any.

By the way, if you're looking for some last-minute stocking stuffers, Oxford University Press has published a book by professor David Benatar of the University of Cape Town called "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence." The author "argues for the 'anti-natal' view – that it is always wrong to have children … . Anti-natalism also implies that it would be better if humanity became extinct." As does Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us" – which Publishers Weekly hails as "an enthralling tour of the world … anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like." It's a good thing it "anticipates" it poetically, because, once it happens, there will be no more poetry.

The good news is that so many of these people won't be reproducing. There is no bad news.

But if they see human beings as such a threat to the environment and more particularly, their own birth as another nail in the coffin of Mother Earth, then it logically follows that their continued existence increases the rate of decline. It further follows that their own death and the deaths of others would collectively have a materially positive impact on the planet. Perhaps they should consider demonstrating their commitment.

Assuming the existing world population takes their rants to heart and no more babies are born after December 17, 2007, who will be left in 100 years to enjoy the new sanctity of the earth. Surely the new progressives would agree that something or someone desired the creation of humans. Whatever lead to our creation [God, the universe,karma - (insert creative force here)] doesn't make mistakes does it? Surely nature wasn't aiming for a cross between a gorilla and an elephant and mistakenly came up with humans.

I believe things are here for a reason. I believe God created cows because he knew people would like leather seats and big fat steaks. I believe there are trees because they make the landscape that much more attractive, they cleanse the air, they can be used for warmth and shelter. Other than some confusion over the cockroach, there are no mistakes. But being a live and let live kind of person, I fully support these progressives' right not to have children.