And so we chase progress, which seems to be ever-expanding growth. As this occurs, people’s homes are crowded out to make way for industrialization, if they aren’t actually absorbed through eminent domain. Industrialization generally brings pollution, and health suffers. And so we build more hospitals in order to care for sick people in our effusive benevolence.
Politicians cut ribbons at business and institutional openings. They are grinning at their constituents as they add up the new tax income in their head.
Industrial farming is in demand to “feed the hungry”. The treatment of animals is obscene, but what can you do? Shipment of crops to distant populations may result in food contamination. Chemical companies are legislating to allow greater market participation for them, regardless of the result to people and the environment. And when did corporations get to legislate---and yet they are.
And we say, “oh, well, that’s just the way it is”. Indeed it is not.
Why haven’t we a national discussion on the subject of Zero Population Growth? This concept has been around a while. The brutal fact is, Earth cannot sustain unending human growth. I’m not talking about not having a child if one wants a child.
Since ZPG was discussed in the ‘70’s, an uprising has occurred that is euphemistically called “family values”. This seems to imply Mom and Dad producing the largest number of children possible in their family. So who does this benefit?
Some say it is mandated in the Bible. I find that suspicious. Who can fly in the face of the wisdom of the Bible? Perhaps starving children can. How about the children enduring diabetes and heart disease brought on by bad food, even in our so-called advanced nation? What about the high rate of cancer, quite often the result of pollution and chemicals?
In our progress-blinded culture, the divorce rate is skyrocketing at the same time we cling to the family values label. What’s up with that? Brain-washing could be one reason we are deeply in denial.
So who benefits from family values and to whom is it truly beneficial? Capitalism doesn’t work without resources. That is what progress as defined by our society is. Churning resources into products to sell in order to enhance profits.
We are destroying our world by using natural resources to be transformed into product in order that industry can be profitable. Government, which at one time was For the People and By the People, is now about keeping business happy.
Well, here’s the thing. Human beings are natural resources. The Supreme Court has decided corporations and humans are the same. They can determine that as often as they want, the fact is human beings and environment are aligned. People can’t live without environment. We are environment. And, cynically, we are being grown and harvested just like any other crop to feed progress.
Capitalism doesn’t work without consumers and workers. That’s what we are folks. Most of our problems could be handle-able if ZPG became a fad in the same manner so-called family values has become a fad.
I’m not talking about population control. We need informed discussion on the subject of responsibility. When a girl’s self-esteem is healthy, she may wish to pursue activities that giving birth to a number of children she couldn’t care for, would impede.
If a boy could find manhood in values rather than impregnating a girl, perhaps he would consider developing a healthy life-partnership.
When a couple in a healthy life-partnership chooses to have children, the two partners can thoughtfully consider whether they want one child or 15. If considered in a stable and mature life-partnership, the decision is theirs alone.
Currently, it seems rather random and children are often born before personal issues are worked out. Society encourages this aimless procreation because bodies are needed to sustain what we now call progress.
ZPG ideals, if made popular in the same manner as has been made family values, may work for many families.
We need to discuss the heck-bent rush toward ever more people. Redefining progress as justice, responsibility, and clarity can actually create healthier families. Redefining progress in terms of ethics and morality will result in immense progress for human beings, rather than corporations.
We must redefine progress in value-related ways instead of profits. Children must be precious souls who are born to responsible parents who are themselves stable. We must stop using people, environment, and animals as the natural resources that will make money for Capitalism
No comments:
Post a Comment