Stop Breeding!

Lately, for whatever reason, I've been noticing lots of people talking about having loads of kids. They like babies, apparently. The unfortunate thing is, all of these people are either very stupid or very religious. Usually both.

It's a well-established fact that stupid people outnumber smart people; the reasons for this are debated. Some, like myself, believe it's at least partially due to a system that rewards excessive reproduction; others think it's due to the removal of restrictions placed on women- back in the day, smart women became teachers because that's all they were allowed to do; today, smart women can do anything a smart man can, and if you set up a nice practice as a lawyer or doctor, would you want to take time off to give birth to a kid? I doubt it.

I also believe that many people do no fully comprehend the implications of childrearing. I know a couple of girls I graduated high school with now have kids, the sad thing being that they were looking forward to being mothers.

See, I place babies in the same category as puppies, kittens, and guinea piglets: sure, they may be cute now, but when you have to clean crap/barf/urine off the carpet, you're going to be thinking differently, at least until said animal learns better. The difference between these girls and me is, they don't see the downside- all they think is OMG babiez SOOOO CUTE, and that's it. No plan for the child's future; no plan to make their future kid more successful than they are (this wouldn't be difficult for the girls I've cited; it would involve going to college and not having kids right after you graduate). But no, instead they choose to have children not for their childrens' sake, but for theirs. It's some kind of bizarre maternal badge of honour, apparently, to have kids even when you're not ready for them.

As if teenage ignorance wasn't enough, we also have a movement within most fundamentalist communities (christian and muslim alike) that aims to produce as many children as possible per sanctified union; women are treated as nothing more than baby factories, and girls are taught never to aspire to anything other than reproductive excess. I wouldn't be so opposed to this "quiverfull" movement if 1) it was not inspired by superstition and 2) the kinds of people having boatloads of kids were scientists, engineers, and doctors- you know, people who actually contribute tangible benefits to society.

But no, you instead have Billy-Bob and Sue-Anne marrying right out of high school and never aspiring to make anything of themselves; they are taught that sex is evil and that higher education is the work of the devil, so Billy-Bob is resigned to working the rest of his life at the steel foundry or whatever, and Sue-Anne is relegated to an existence made up exclusively of cooking, cleaning, fucking, and breeding, in varying order.

Does anybody else see the problem with this? THIS IS WRONG! People should not make more people simply for the sake of having more people; they should make more people because they believe they can make better people than themselves: individuals who, once their education is complete, can turn around and give something back to society.