One of the silliest things I’ve seen in a long time—the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. These are folks who think the human race should stop procreating until we die out and the biosphere can recover.
There was a community here in Enfield that practiced a small-scale version of the VHEMT. They were called the Shakers. They didn’t procreate (or have sex at all), so they died out, which is not exactly a shocking development for a religious community that can only gain members through adoption or conversion. The village is still there, and it has some beautifully constructed buildings on it. The Great Stone Dwelling is particularly impressive. It’s made of granite and was designed to house 150 people. The Catholics bought Shaker Village and then resold it, and now it’s mostly private residences sitting on prime real estate overlooking Mascoma Lake.
Human reproduction, tied to our most basic biological urge, is pretty much impossible to suppress, and any organization dedicated to the eradication of it has no chance of convincing more than just a statistically insignificant number of followers.
I once worked with a nitwit who preached that due to overpopulation humans should not reproduce. I told him that the only honorable action he could take was to commit suicide for Mother Gaia. He was laid off a few weeks later and I’ve never heard from or of him since. I can only hope he did the honorable thing.
I kept looking at that site trying to find the “Nah we are just kidding” link but they are serious. We are going to promote life but all dying so life can continue? Huh?
My prior response was to your post. But I decided to take a quick gander at that site… What a bunch of irrational boobs. Now I’m certain they should all throw themselves off of a cliff.
Any time someone tells me the world is overpopulated and that the population needs to be reduced, I respond by suggesting they throw themselves off a cliff, rather than imposing their population-reduction schemes on the rest of us.
I think there is a huge difference between “not reproducing” and “not having sex”. I intend to do none of one, and a healthy amount of the other.
At least it’s voluntary, for once.
the shakers are pretty darn interesting. I grew up in Connecticut, and there were a few old shaker villages around, rds named after them, etc. We did a bunch of units on them in middle and high school. It seems like that they actually had a fairly functional communal system.