(no subject)

[serene]

My co-workers are from all over the world, so I went to tell them about the latest quake.

The petty dictator's response: "I hate to say this, but it's the earth's form of birth control."

Me: "Maybe in the grand scheme of things, but the little babies and families that die don't know that."

Sometimes I feel like an alien here.

Comments

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

Besides: that's kind of a stupid response anyway, IMNSHO. It's not birth control, for one, and for another if I were the earth trying to reduce the impact on myself I wouldn't be going after people. Or, while we're anthropomorphizing, are we also attributing bad aim?

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he wouldn't say that if it happened in his neighborhood:(

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she wouldn't, but she's twenty, and probably thinks she's gonna live forever.

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

Oh. Yes. Probably.

Next?

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

?! Birth control? Um. NO. Just wow. *hugs* Good response.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

"So was 9/11"

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Not a very good analogy for natural disaster, nu?

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

Everything is nature. "9/11 and NAZI death camps were also population control."

The idea behind "earth's form of birth control" is that there are too many people therefore one shouldn't worry too much about some of them dying. If that's true then any reasons behind the deaths are irrelevant, and the person should have the same reaction to death camps or any other event that lowers the population.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying I don't agree with you. I'm saying I don't find it to be a reasonable rhetorical argument -- I don't think most people equate natural disasters (things people have no control over) with evil committed by humans.

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

Likely not, but where does something like famine exacerbated by war come in?

It's not always as simple as human-caused vs not.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I agree, but I think that a tsunami is pretty clearly not a human-made event, though there are certainly human forces that make the devastation worse. I certainly think that at least in my mind, murder committed by people is evil, while death caused by natural disasters is unfortunate. The blend of people-caused stuff and natural-disaster-caused stuff is rarely 100% of either, but that doesn't make the original example a good one, in my view.

[redbird]

A lot depends on the details. Hurricane Mitch destroyed half of Honduras, not just because it was a bad hurricane but because so many of the trees had been cut down on the hillsides.

totally OT

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Love your "stained glass" icon. Is this a piece you own? or made? Where did you get it?

Re: totally OT

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

it's a mock-up of a piece i started; all the glass is cut, none of the lead has been done

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Uh ... maybe BIRTH CONTROL is the earth's form of birth control? Since when is the death of existing people equivalent to preventing new people?

Sheesh.

-J

Ugh

[ailbhe]

If she thinks the earth is overpopulated, why doesn't she kill herself?

Re: Ugh

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Heh. I know a lot of people who think the world is overpopulated. Just not with people like them.

(I do not think the world is overpopulated. I think resources are underdistributed.)

Re: Ugh

[ailbhe]

I think that too. That's why I don't feel guilty about having a baby (and the many more we're planning) - we are very resource-cheap (for our demographic, I mean) and she may well be a redistributor, too, just like us! Outbreed the stupid people, that's my motto!

(Also, I just wanted babies, but I can JUSTIFY anything I want to).

Re: Ugh

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

hm. i do think the world is overpopulated by humans, in addition to resources being underdistributed, and i include myself -- but i am not altruistic enough, nor do i think it'd make any sigificant difference, to kill myself. i am not a particularly heavy resource user in my demographic. there are better things to do in any case.

i do, however, not procreate, in part because other people do plenty of it. but the numbers seem to show that humans overall are doing better and better at controlling their population, so i'm starting to be a little less pessimistic about the outcome.

viewing earthquakes as birth control is ... oh, you said she was 20. maybe a somewhat naive 20 at that. maybe she thinks talking tough will protect her. i dunno. i reserve my disdain for those in power who do the real damage.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Yecch. I read that as "I'm too busy/important/callous to care for anyone I don't know."

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yep, with an undertone of, as someotherguy put it, "More proof that God hates brown people."

[trinker.livejournal.com]

*wince* Yeah, I was wondering about that.

[berkeleyfarm.livejournal.com]

Major squick.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Not a scrap of humanity in evidence.