The Massive Controversy Over Having Children

Liberals want what parents want, but parents are just ahead of the curve

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Twitter erupted this week in a controversy over this tweet, which suggested that life without kids eventually becomes sort of gray and aimless. 

The responses from progressives were mostly ones of disgust and disbelief. The consensus view from this side held that life without children meant surplus cash to spend on traveling and going out to eat at restaurants, and surplus time to spend on sleeping in and hanging out with friends, things which are obvious to want. Needing to fill the default meaning gap in human life with another, new human life just meant a lack of mental resources, poor thinking, they seemed to believe. 

Some other frequent comments I saw were that parents who have kids to avoid boredom and loneliness are selfish, that anyone who would choose to reproduce in light of ostensibly imminent climate catastrophe was a horrible person, and that life is suffering and bringing anyone into it is evil. A few progressive parents also weighed in to affirm their in-group peers and say that parenting is miserable and boring.

But ironically the entire premise of the progressive project centers around the same premise as having children. The reason progressives substitute the focus of every institution they’re in for the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the reason they all put pronouns in their bios and in their email signatures, the reason they feel an individual’s subjective sense of themselves is more important to affirm than empirical reality, the reason they change the very language we use to avoid the hurt feelings of whoever, is because they are driven to find meaning in caring for other people, the same way parents are. More than plane rides to Paris or elaborate dinners or whatever, they’ll admit they care about nothing more than the downtrodden and disadvantaged, would make any sacrifice for them. 

It’s indelible in what we are, no matter what we have to care about someone. Our art, our pleasure, our dreams, they’re nothing compared to our duty, they pale to our desire for human responsibility, and it does feel great to be responsible for another’s welfare.