Overpopulation: Taking back Control

by Patrycja Harnaszkiewicz

For the last couple years of my maturing teens I have always pushed myself to become more politically and socially aware and overall behold more open-minded patterns of thought. With many revolutionary events and movements present in society in recent years, such as protests for global warming, BLM, women’s rights, this spreading of awareness has been very beneficial in bringing light to inequalities which are continuously present and active in society which we otherwise wouldn’t bat an eye about due to the normalisation and numbness to experiencing discrimination and unfair treatment. Throughout my upbringing and environment I've been encouraged to participate in such movements by friends and family with similar viewpoints and perspectives as I find great interest and passion creating change in relation to contemporary issues and undermining traditional/stereotypical expectations. Basically, I like to be different and by going against social norms I feel more freedom than anything, social constraints specifically capitalism have had a significant influence on my future plans and mindset in regards to the workplace. I still sometimes doubt myself on whether I'll achieve success, satisfaction and happiness due to the current political and social climate of the western world but then I do have to remember that great things and a march of progress are ahead.

Another way in which I exhibit my hate for cultural norms and expectations is my dislike for children or more specifically the thought of having to endure childbearing and raising a child which will dominate my personal life, which of course isn’t the sole fault of society but my own personal beliefs and goals in life. I don’t believe that I as a woman need children in order to feel sufficient in my life. Another major factor that influenced this thought was the concept of overpopulation, which not only sparked fear in me and made me question my own environmental impact and carbon footprint but made me question whether raising offspring in this day and age would be selfish and appropriate of me. Through studying philosophy my perception of life has changed dramatically and made me question ordinary aspects of our everyday lives which seem somehow odd and unusual when deeper thought is applied. As I've become more aware I believe that some of the reasons for having children are predominantly self-orientated whether that be having a child in order for them to attempt to fulfil your unachieved dreams and goals, healing our inner child by providing them with the love/care, experiences you never did, or due to social/cultural pressure brought on by institutions such as religion, family or society which continue to emphasise the nuclear family structure in order to achieve this ‘perfect’ life. However striving for perfection and abiding with such values and norms may impact your life in ways you could never imagine; of course there are man great positives and joy in having children which i’m not attempting to discredit however the family is just another social construct designed to contain us and our disobedience and lack of compliance. Your life is what you create it, there’s two choices either you abide or you rebel.

Living in Britain in a capitalist economic system and society has incredibly shaped and manipulated my views on working and ensuring that I work towards a job which I can enjoy rather than slave myself away and lose myself to. No amount of children will ever make me happy or satisfied if I'm focused on other people rather than my own individualism and well-being. As shallow as it may sound, I don't think I'm capable of devoting my life and my potential to another being over my own. I like to think of myself as a spirit who doesn’t expect anything from anyone else and vice versa i instead focus on myself instead of relying on other beings which usually just leads to disappointment, not having anyone's energy weighing you down is so spiritually freeing and relieving and I feeling I don’t think i’ll ever get sick of...maybe.

Furthermore, recently I have come to the conclusion that my fear of overpopulation based on environmental impact and just the idea of bringing a child up in a corrupted and gradually disintegrating earth is in fact a myth. Based on my knowledge of capitalism in conjunction with global warming i have deduced that this concept which is so heavily marketed through the victimising nature of charities and our individual impact on the world is in fact fake and just a sob story used in a weak attempt to mask the true dark nature of capitalism and its control over our lives. With the obvious increasing population, many issues regarding resources have been raised yet the irony is ludicrous. The politicians and people of high power and status who advocate for change are the same ones who continue to exploit under-developed, low income countries by making profit off their land, oil, crops and materials. If only all of the worlds combined resources were distributed in a somewhat equal and fair way, we would have resources to go between all of them efficiently, of course we have enough. We have way more than enough but greed continues to dominate people’s lives and the ability to further gain and drain our earth seems to be a guilty pleasure.

So,I now question myself whether my thoughts are well justified: do I still need to live in fear based on something completely out of my wavelength and control. Living in fear however essentially gets you nowhere. Do I now want children, still no but the thought of having them doesn’t cause as many associations with guilt or burden so I guess that's a start.