"I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it"
The notion that gets bantered about, at least WAS bantered about by some friends, and in some (usually "liberal") discourse, is the "Case Against Babies" being that some folks don't want to bring a child into "a world like this."
A world like what? The one you've so dilligently built for yourself for 20, 30, or 40 years? Or, at least, let happen to you during the same time frame - drifting along on the Crunchy Baboochy - ending up on some delta of thought and idealogy?
Our world is the one we make of the one we've landed in. Yes, our circumstances, bend, mould and shape who we are, or we can, or might turn out to be, but ultimately it is our choices that get us to where we are.
Just listening to music, watching a few films and reading a few books will grant you an understanding that there are worlds out there that you cannot possibly imagine. So foreign from your existence, you or "they" might as well be living on a different planet. And I'm not talking about 3000 miles from you, I'm talking about more like within a 30 minute drive from your house - more like 3 seconds for many of us.
Sometimes it means that every time you flip on the Damn USA Channel you see Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken in the Deer Hunter about to blow some VC away during their game of Russian Roulette. Sometimes it's seeing Pimps and Hos at work. Sometimes it's walkin' down the street when you're in highschool and having a brother come up to you exclaiming "Baby Stoners! What you want? What you need?" Sometimes it's getting Blotto at the USA vs. Venezuela match and screaming at Brian McBride to suck it up.
There are worlds out there we cannot fathom, let alone begin to imagine. If you, big adult that you are, are in a world where bringing a kid into it doesn't seem like a great idea, good for you. Don't.
But here's the flip side of the coin: breeding them out has got to work sometime. What I mean by that whacky-ass statement is this: If you are the kind of person who believes in a good, righteous and just world, then by God raise a kid or two who does the same. If that means adopting or being a Big Brother or Big Sister, or even trying your hand at being a foster parent, I say GO FOR IT.
Of course there are a multitude of reasons to NOT have children. I simply argue "the state of the world" isn't one of them. We make our reality. Go make yours.
