What is Antinatalism and do i consider myself an Antinatalist?

The world has become toxic and is destined to doom. Blame for this "disaster in the making" lies entirely on humanity. While we are pushing this world into a spiral of chaos causing enough pain and suffering, "bringing kids to this world" would not only be irresponsible but CRIMINAL on our part.

Antinatalism is a philosophical position and social movement that assigns a negative value to birth. It argues that people should abstain from procreation because it is morally bad. We are fully aware about the world we live in. There used to be a time when nature used to heal us, it gave us the greatest gift we could ask for, in the form of a habitat where life nurtured, human beings coexisted with other species and hope guided us. But human beings, over the centuries have worked overtime to make sure we destroy the gift we received. Due to short-sightedness, foolishness or knowingly we killed the basic pillars that made this world a paradise to live, procreate and thrive. What we have left now is a toxic, overheated and a highly volatile sphere which by each passing day seems to be nearing its doom. 

Consider our own life as a millennial. What do we have? Probably not much. Why are we always restless? Because we are worried to lose whatever little we have. But why are we faced with such a situation? The answer to this question is not so simple. It is a summation of lot of factors, almost all of it man-made. If we consider the life of a millennial, we tend to understand where we are coming from. 

Millennial as a generation have overtaken all other generation is terms of population as of this moment. They are the most restless, competitive and productive people on this planet. Yet they suffer from insomnia, depression, fear of missing out (FOMO) syndrome and hundred other kind of physical and mental disorders, unlike their previous generations, despite technological and medical breakthroughs achieved today. It begs a serious question, WHY?

The first reason is the increase in population. While we have seen an unprecedented increase in population, due to medical advancement leading to an increase in average age of human beings and birth fatalities going down significantly. This population bomb could not be complemented with an increase in the resources available in this world, since there is only so much for everyone. Also, wealth disparity in the world is increasing by the day. This results in competition, which is not a very comfortable position to be in. Competition keeps increasing as people can't keep a tab on their whims and fancies. Social pressures lead them to move from a need-based lifestyle to a want and vanity-based lifestyle. This vanity doesn't come cheap, as there are limited resources, the vanity that one enjoys comes at the cost of somebody else. So, what is the way to win and stay ahead to snatch this vanity? The answer is cheat, deceit, lie, in short do whatever it takes to win. So, the generation essentially is faced with two choices, either win at all cost to enjoy the vanity or lose to struggle each day of your life. Not a very rosy picture I must say. If anything, the world is going to be a worse going forward.

The second reason being the cost of living, which has gone up considerably. Millennials are a broke generation. They can't purchase homes because they end up repaying their education loans for the rest of their lives. They end up cutting back on their lifestyle and consumption to repay interest, they are faced with an economic recession once in every ten years, it's a certainty. They end up losing whatever little saving they have in their 401K in US and other employee market-linked saving plan in other countries due to recession. Millennials are forced to live by the day. They, unlike their predecessors are left with enormous amounts of federal debt and leverage that they have to pay. In other words, the sins of previous generations have come to haunt millennials.

The third reason being climate change and environmental degradation. The environment has degraded to unbearable levels, especially in developing industrialized countries. It is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe due to severe air quality in most big cities in India and China, two of the most populous countries of the world, home to almost half of the world's population. Climate change is causing serious problems, not only human beings but almost all species. Ecological balance has never been worse. It leads to global warming, forcing people to stay indoors in artificially controlled temperatures. This departure from natural living leads to change in behaviour and stress. There are studies that suggest water will dry up in major cities in developing countries like India in few years. Major glaciers are melting and threatening to flood coastal cities and towns.  

There are many such reasons which have contributed to the deterioration of quality of life when it comes to millennials and if anything, this trend is going to accelerate, not reverse. The condition of millennials also helps us see the path we are on and what the next generations are going to have to face if they are brought to this world. If only we understand and effectively calculate the suffering millennials are facing, we would be able to make that important decision of whether to throw a life into this ball of fire or let that life not face this path of pain and suffering. 

By procreation, we are placing a new life into a structurally negative cycle, which is increasingly becoming inherently adverse. From the moment a human life comes into being, they are affected by multiple frictions, notably physical pain in the form of illness, accidents and natural catastrophes. The other being discouragement in the form of lack of will or depression. Third being exposure to aggression of other humans in the form of gossip or slander to persecution and injustice. It needs to be clarified that these are anyways tied to a human being's life whether a millennial or a baby boomer, irrespective of the generation and the quality of life. To defend human beings from these adverse negative cycle, we have to create positive values and keep these values constantly alive. Something which is becoming increasingly difficult in this generation. We already discussed how competition and the race to vanity is bankrupting us of our morals and leaving us with an attitude to "win at any cost" which is unfortunately the worst end of this scale.

A debate regarding the moral standing of Antinatalism throws the argument of consent. Since there is no way for consenting with the new life before procreating, it is morally incorrect. A new being upon arrival in this rather unwelcoming world, might grow a dislike to it and starts question his own being. In such a case would the decision to procreate be morally correct to bring this new life to being which he so detests. The answer can be a hypothetical consent, since the ones procreating take it upon themselves to decide whether there is consent from the new life i.e. arbitrary decision making. This arbitrary or hypothetical consent is problematic on many levels. If the action is not taken there isn't any great harm at stake but if the action is taken, the suffering of the new life created can be severe. This new life might not escape the imposed condition without very high cost like suicide which is often a physically, emotionally and morally excruciating option. Also, the hypothetical consent or arbitrary decision making does not take into account the values of this new being who will bear the imposed condition. Thus, this debate can be rested by the argument that when we want to significantly affect someone by our actions and it's not possible to get their consent, then the default should be not to take that action.

Having discussed deeply the concept of Antinatalism and the strong reasons for it to be considered, my personal view is a little hybrid. I fall somewhere in between Natalism and Antinatalism. I am fine with some people having kinds and bringing new life to being as long as they have the necessary financial and emotional resources to make sure the new life would not face the structurally negative cycle in this world. This will also make sure the human race continues but at a controlled pace. While the rest of the population who are not sure about this must take a plunge into Antinatalism for the sake of humanity. If in case natalism attracts them later, they can always adopt a child. There are millions of orphaned kids who need a loving family, in case somebody can provide them that opportunity, this would be the best of both worlds.

The proposed solution would also give us more time to reverse some of the issues plaguing our world. Climate change for once is a real threat to humanity. Nature has its own good way of dealing with overheating, if we do not want humanity to be wiped out in a single sweep we must take action now by reducing the burden on resources by reducing population growth and by trying to give a better life to the people already struggling in this world by adopting them. Respect nature and other species as much we love and respect our existence, since humanity cannot survive by wiping out other species and creating an ecological imbalance. For humanity it's a race against time and they have a choice to make. While I believe my choice has the potential to reshape the world for a positive change, it depends on each one of us to decide what's best for us and the world we live in.

Conclusion:

The debate around Antinatalism has been more on an intellectual and theoretical level but time has come when it should be put to practice. The world we live in is gasping for breath after been heavily exploited and tortured. While the current pathetic condition of world shall be attributed to human beings, it is thus imperative and incumbent upon them to take a lead and try to fix what's been broken. The overpopulation on a limited resource base is not sustainable and there remains only one way to solve the issue, that is to reduce the population gradually to create a balance between the resources and the existing population. While Antinatalism is a little radical but there are ways around it which can also be morally and ethically ensuring and comforting. The idea to not bring a new life to being but giving an already existing soul, suffering and struggling to survive is the best way forward. Adoption can be the answer to a debate between Natalism and Antinatalism.