Isn't life precious?
Stuck between a choice between doing some Xmas cards, doing up some RP for Nationstates or some therapeutic blogging / venting, I came here.
People have been discussing pro-choice; pro-life; pro-death on a couple of forums I frequent and it's certainly got me thinking. I'm not really all that concerned about the particular abortion perspective but it certainly exercises arguments around morality and the nature of life that time and again keep cropping up for me.
Abortion, I can take or rather leave, as a women's health issue. But I also have to admit that no matter what your stance on the issue, it represents the termination of a life on this particular plane of existence. I'd rather we just admitted that, rather than try and muddy the waters with definitions and brain-waves, etc.
Abortions are happening anyway and are part & parcel of the planet we have created and frankly, under capitalism, I can see the unfortunate practicality of them. It's also ironic to note that those who tie themselves to the pro-life stance stand in cold solidarity with those who actively contribute to the abortion of opportunity that is propagated in Africa and other impoverished areas of the planet on a daily basis. Given a choice between starvation of a new born because the ruling elites of this planet need to protect the market and profit versus the proper dissemination of contraception and pregnancy termination facilities, I'd have to go for the latter.
Until people get behind the big picture plan of actually changing the world to a system based on need rather than the expropriation of huge resources into the hands of a privileged few for super-profit then really, I don't think the pro-life argument has much of a stand on sanctimonious handwringing over Abortion.
But this leads onto other considerations, euthanasia is a no contest but what of suicide? Personally, I've always thought of it as a choice issue, if you approach in it that manner and consider the ramifications such a decision has on those who choose to love you despite yourself and the unfortunate necessity of somebody cleaning up the afters, it makes it a selfish choice to my mind anyway. But if there was a way of divorcing those issues, I'm not so sure I'd have a problem with such a decision.
Life is absurd in anycase. Take a walk down a street and step over a beggar or two, buy a newspaper and go and sit in some overpriced cafe or bar and marvel at the stories of the world we have created. A vast lottery where chances are, you're going to end up in the 2 billion segment of the planet living on less than $2 a day.
Obviously, the kids with blogs and myself are the lucky ones. We don't have hardship and perhaps that's what makes the idea and the reality of the world so abhorrent to me and others, if I can have a comfortable existence why do so many in power actively seek to promote and actually deepen human suffering? They're convinced they're right obviously and that the system if it doesn't work adequately is the best humanity can come up with. That human nature is completely ingrained to profit, greed, lust and rampant immorality.
Then they give us their system of morality, where wars for capitalist greed are moral and dressed up as humanitarian whilst civil rights go out the window for the promise of false democracy and then willfully ignore barbarous regimes, because barbarism has it's uses; cheap labour for extraordinary renditions probably.
So I've probably hijacked my own post here. Let's pick it back up.
Life is surreal / absurd and fundamentally lacks meaning because we have divorced meaning from it by attaching nothing but consumption to it's fundamental purpose. Get me three or four houses, then I'll be happy, get me lots of money, then I'll be secure.
Security. That's what drives most people.
That used to be why people used to have kids. So that somebody would care for them in their old age. Talk about a vicious cycle.
Nowadays, through our ability to fence each other off from one another and becoming deeply wrapped up in the fundamental importance of ourselves, people seem to be increasingly using children to foist their claim of immortality on the world.
Maybe I'm being desperately unfair but it's just how I feel, maybe having a kid would change my perspective I dunno.
But if he / she didn't turn out to be a great revolutionary I'd be disappointed.
You see?
We all do it.
:O)
Current Listenin'
Donovan - Sunshine Superman
People have been discussing pro-choice; pro-life; pro-death on a couple of forums I frequent and it's certainly got me thinking. I'm not really all that concerned about the particular abortion perspective but it certainly exercises arguments around morality and the nature of life that time and again keep cropping up for me.
Abortion, I can take or rather leave, as a women's health issue. But I also have to admit that no matter what your stance on the issue, it represents the termination of a life on this particular plane of existence. I'd rather we just admitted that, rather than try and muddy the waters with definitions and brain-waves, etc.
Abortions are happening anyway and are part & parcel of the planet we have created and frankly, under capitalism, I can see the unfortunate practicality of them. It's also ironic to note that those who tie themselves to the pro-life stance stand in cold solidarity with those who actively contribute to the abortion of opportunity that is propagated in Africa and other impoverished areas of the planet on a daily basis. Given a choice between starvation of a new born because the ruling elites of this planet need to protect the market and profit versus the proper dissemination of contraception and pregnancy termination facilities, I'd have to go for the latter.
Until people get behind the big picture plan of actually changing the world to a system based on need rather than the expropriation of huge resources into the hands of a privileged few for super-profit then really, I don't think the pro-life argument has much of a stand on sanctimonious handwringing over Abortion.
But this leads onto other considerations, euthanasia is a no contest but what of suicide? Personally, I've always thought of it as a choice issue, if you approach in it that manner and consider the ramifications such a decision has on those who choose to love you despite yourself and the unfortunate necessity of somebody cleaning up the afters, it makes it a selfish choice to my mind anyway. But if there was a way of divorcing those issues, I'm not so sure I'd have a problem with such a decision.
Life is absurd in anycase. Take a walk down a street and step over a beggar or two, buy a newspaper and go and sit in some overpriced cafe or bar and marvel at the stories of the world we have created. A vast lottery where chances are, you're going to end up in the 2 billion segment of the planet living on less than $2 a day.
Obviously, the kids with blogs and myself are the lucky ones. We don't have hardship and perhaps that's what makes the idea and the reality of the world so abhorrent to me and others, if I can have a comfortable existence why do so many in power actively seek to promote and actually deepen human suffering? They're convinced they're right obviously and that the system if it doesn't work adequately is the best humanity can come up with. That human nature is completely ingrained to profit, greed, lust and rampant immorality.
Then they give us their system of morality, where wars for capitalist greed are moral and dressed up as humanitarian whilst civil rights go out the window for the promise of false democracy and then willfully ignore barbarous regimes, because barbarism has it's uses; cheap labour for extraordinary renditions probably.
So I've probably hijacked my own post here. Let's pick it back up.
Life is surreal / absurd and fundamentally lacks meaning because we have divorced meaning from it by attaching nothing but consumption to it's fundamental purpose. Get me three or four houses, then I'll be happy, get me lots of money, then I'll be secure.
Security. That's what drives most people.
That used to be why people used to have kids. So that somebody would care for them in their old age. Talk about a vicious cycle.
Nowadays, through our ability to fence each other off from one another and becoming deeply wrapped up in the fundamental importance of ourselves, people seem to be increasingly using children to foist their claim of immortality on the world.
Maybe I'm being desperately unfair but it's just how I feel, maybe having a kid would change my perspective I dunno.
But if he / she didn't turn out to be a great revolutionary I'd be disappointed.
You see?
We all do it.
:O)
Current Listenin'
Donovan - Sunshine Superman
posted by Christophe at 1:21 p.m.
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