Sexually Transmitted Viral Ponzi Scheme

Transcribo aquí algunos pasajes de la conclusión del libro The Human Predicament (2017), de David Benatar, donde se concluye que the human predicament, "la terrible situación humana", viene a ser un inhuman predicament.  En caso de que se lo pregunten, Benatar, portavoz destacado del antinatalismo y del extincionismo humano, también dedica unas páginas a analizar si él mismo es optimista o pesimista, y por qué la actitud más razonable en conjunto es la de un pesimismo pragmático, conclusión que supongo justifica y explica que se dedique a escribir libros como éste, The Human Predicament, o como su otro gran tratado, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (2006), en lugar de suicidarse. (El suicidio es malo, opina, y la muerte es mala, aunque hay cosas peores).

There are two important things to say about suicide. First because one feature of the human predicament is that there are fates worse than death, suicide must be an option. It is unconscionable for a person upon whom existence was thrust not to have the option to exit if continued existence becomes unbearable. Second, because death is bad, not only for the person who dies but also for loved ones who survive him or her, it is glib and callous to respond to the pessimist about the human condition by saying: "If it is so bad, just kill yourself!" Such responses simply fail to appreciate the predicament. 

The human predicament is in fact an inhuman predicament because it is so appalling. It is inhuman primarily in a metaphorical sense because "inhuman" denotes cruelty, and cruelty presupposes agency. Yet the human predicament, writ large, is fundamentally and overwhelmingly not the product of any agent. It is the product of blind evolutionary forces that are indifferent to us.

Of course, once agency evolved, cruelty in a more literal sense exacerbated the human predicament. Humans inflict colossal quantities of suffering and death on other humans. The deceits, degradations, betrayals, exploitations, rapes, tortures, and murders, for example, aggravate the predicaments of individual humans. Another way in which agency plays some role in the human predicament is through procreation, the sexually transmitted "virus" that spreads existence and also spreads the existential predicament. This recreation of the predicament is not usually the product of cruelty. The usual causes are negligence and indifference in the case of those who reproduce without intending to do so, and selfishness or misplaced altruism in the case of those who do aim to create new humans.

(...) 

How should one respond to the human predicament? One obvious response is to desist from perpetuating it by creating new humans who will inevitably be in the same predicament. Every birth is a death in waiting. When one hears of a birth, one must know that it is but a matter of time before that new human dies. Sandwiched between birth and death is a struggle for meaning and a desperate attempt to ward off life's suffering. This is why a pessimistic view about the human condition leads to thee anti-natalist conclusion that we ought not to procreate.

It is true that having and rearing children can help one cope with the human predicament. Children are one means to creating some terrestrial meaning. They can also enhance the quality of their parents', siblings', and others' lives. However, this is not a justification for procreating. The lesser reason for this is that there are other ways to create meaning and enhance the quality of one's life. The more important reason is that creating children in order to secure these goods constitutes participation in a procreative Ponzi scheme. Each generation creates a new one in order to mitigate its own situation. Like all Ponzi schemes, this one will not end well. There will inevitably be a final generation. The earlier that generation is, the fewer people will be thrust into existence and thus into the human predicament.

Bueno, aquí lo dejo. Sólo diré que a pesar de las cualidades de humor negro de los libros de Benatar, y del interés filosófico que tienen debido en gran medida a la calidad y detalle de su razonamiento, y a la importancia de los temas tratados, en esta ocasión el razonamiento basado en la analogía con la pirámide de Ponzi tiene una obvia deficiencia matemática. 

Deficiencia cuyos detalles dejaré que extraigan ustedes mismos, a modo de ejercicio de optimismo pragmático.

Aquí los extincionistas

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