Why Humanity Deserves Extinction
I vaguely remember writing something like this before. Or else I'm imagining it. I'll end 2018 with one last hurrah anyway.
I'n not exactly known for my love of our species, if anything I consider myself one of the world's most extreme misanthropists. Although extreme may be too heavy a word to use in this case considering it's use in other areas, and I am not so much a hypocrite that I would ever do anything which would warrant such a description.
So, why are we deserving of extinction? There are many reasons really, but I think they can all be condensed down to one simple thing: the complete and absolute abandonment of logic and reason.
* Let's focus on the home field for a moment. Escorting, prostitution, sex work. We're approaching the third anniversary now I think (do correct me if I'm wrong) in the coming months of the criminalisation of the clients of sex workers in this country. Prior to this draconian law being enacted, there was campaigning on both sides, for and against this legislation. And despite the best efforts of the SWAI and others, bigotry and prejudice won out in the end by a landslide. All in the name of supposedly trying to protect those involved in working in the sex industry, both voluntarily and involuntarily, or so the claim and ultimate goal of this legislation was to be. Despite the numerous arguments made against this law, it of course fell on the deaf ears of living fossils.
I have time and time again questioned the logic behind this decision, how it could at all actively help any sex worker, either those freely engaged in it or those that are forced against there will. I have scrambled what little brains I have over the last years trying desperately to find some reasonable answer to that question... and I cannot.
There was no logical reason behind this decision, it there were then those in power at the time would have listened to the SWAI as well as the opinions of Amnesty International and the World Health Organisation, both of which argued against this law's introduction, and others of course. What logic, what reason is there in refusing to listen to both sides of a case before casting judgement?
* How we treat ourselves in general. The global community. From small scale to large scale. The countries that still view women as objects. Countries that still outlaw homosexuality. Countries where oppression and tyranny is the law of the land. In this day and age, for me at least, even a single country is too many for any one of these cases. We claim to be so intelligent, we view ourselves as gods over all other life forms on this planet. And yet for many, the dark ages are still happening. In all countries, crime exists.
Crimes targeting the innocent and profiting the guilty. Fraud, murder, rape, the list of crimes is almost unthinkable. And then at the very top of the list, there are two that in my mind transcend any other form of crime because of their scale and impact they have. And those two are human trafficking and terrorism. In this day and age, treating other human beings like dirt. As objects for profit, as enemies for sharing alternative beliefs.
Even non crimes, look at so-called leaders. Leo Varadkar recently refusing to refer to "vulture funds" as just that. Donald Trump continuing to make a laughing stock of his country in the name of making it great again. Greed and corruption is something that sits in our veins, waiting to rear their ugly heads. People elected to be a leader for their people, and yet all they truly care about is lead-lining their own pockets and the pockets of those who keep them lead-lined. Is it so much to ask that a politician actually care about the people they've been elected to represent, actually act in the best interests of their country, actually stand up for the simple nature of what is right and wrong.
* And then to cap that off, the planet. Look at the devastation we have caused and continue to cause. Millions of acres of land stripped away to feed ourselves, to bed ourselves, without a single thought given to the impact it could have on local wildlife. It's estimated that since the rise of our species, we have more than halved the global population of trees. Trees that played vital functions towards our planet's stability. Absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, producing oxygen. Supplying shelter and habitats for other plant species, countless animals, etc. Now there are only half as many trees to do all that as there were before us.
The damage we have caused to the seas because of our pollution. Reports of marine life being entangled and dying in our waste. And then there's mindless poaching. How many species have we caused the extinction of because of nothing but pure greed? Greed from profit of poaching, greed from destruction of ecosystems for our own betterment. Japan have announced just recently that they are to again commence in commercial whaling.
There's really a hilarious irony to all this. That irony is despite everything we've done, everything we continue to do and everything we will do in the future, all this damage... we are one of the few species whose existence this planet would be completely better off without. What role do we play, apart from the rape of the natural world? Stripping it of its finite resources, polluting wherever we go, causing irreparable damage to global biodiversity. Yes, there are good people, even I must concede that fact. Even so far as to say that most people are 'good'. But good to what end? And how far? Perhaps most importantly of all, how long until things truly are completely irreparable? I don't consider myself an intelligent man, I do as I have always done and that is try and speak and act with as much common sense as I can possibly muster. I've made mistakes, way more than my even share would allow even. I would be the first to admit that I am the most ill-perfect human being on the planet. But at the end of the day, despite all the good and bad things I have done, I have never acted in my own self interests if it would come at someone else's expense. And that's perhaps the only bit of pride I have. We each owe the universe a death, and whether there is a god or gods, heaven and hell, afterlife or nothing... we each of us owe it to everyone and ourselves to leave things in as good a state if not better, than it was when we entered it ourselves. As a species, we have failed that spectacularly, and continue to do so, and in my opinion: that is never going to change so long as we are still alive.
Common sense, logic, reason, ethics and morality even... they're all dying and have been for some time. And I struggle to see my place in this world anymore. And I struggle even more so, to see humanity's place in the world. Good intentions, or bad ones, whichever the case, if it comes at great expense... is never good.
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Originally Posted by FranknStein
