Submitted 3 weeks ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/7a53c7c3-277a-43e6-8a24-01a31bf61a3f.png
This Be The Verse
By Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
The other side of that coin is that people also tend to learn from their parents mistakes and at least avoid some of the negative patterns that came before.
No one can be a perfect parent, but most parents try their best to give their kids a good childhood and then there are some who should have never had kids in the first place.
A bit of nuance is in order, else poems lile that one just feels too fucking childish for me to take seriously. It reeks of I’m 14 and this is deep.
Let’s not get too hot and bothered by sixteen lines of copypasta doggerel. As far as nuance goes, the entire point of the poem is to serve as “baby’s first nuance.” Its intended audience is indeed 14-year-olds (and others who share their solipsism) who think they are deep, and who resent their parents – as if those parents didn’t try, as if those parents weren’t ever children themselves. And Larkin, misanthropic shit that he was, mischievously suggests that perhaps those people should not have children themselves.
Anyway, it seemed appropriate to post in response to a shitpost about someone who is angry at being born without their consent.
I find it unconsciencable that it’s just assumed that you’ll be okay with having to live dispite lacking any ability to consent to being born. And then when you don’t want to be alive everyone calls you selfish for considering suicide. It’s an inherently broken system.
This has given me food for thought. I’ll make an indie rpg that tackles this very topic.
The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. You don’t get to consent to being born. You don’t get to consent to having who you have as parents. And, legally they get to make every important decision about your life for 18 years.
Even if you have parents who actually loved you and showed it, who aren’t abusive, who did the best they could, you’re still stuck in a relationship you didn’t get a chance to consent to. Even “good” parents often mess up their kids by trying to live their lives through those kids. Like, parents who are failed athletes trying to push their kids into sports. Or, parents who miss having little kids around trying to guilt their kids into providing them grandkids.
And then there’s the whole expectation of taking care of the parents when they get old and sick. Yes, I get it, they changed their kids’ diapers when they were young. The kids are just returning the favour. But, those kids never had a choice. The parents (for the most part) chose to have kids, and chose to do that work. The kids never agreed to the terms and conditions that said they had to help out their parents when their bodies started failing.
Suicide is selfish, but ultimately, it is your life. It’s unfair that other people get an opportunity to tie all kinds of strings to you before your brain has even developed enough to understand the concepts of live and death.
Then again, we’re just animals. We only exist because a machine which exists to propagate its genes turned out to be effective at propagating its genes. Nature is brutal, and even if we don’t always admit it, we’re still part of nature. There’s nothing fair about it. It just is.
We’re here to perpetuate the solving of chemical imbalances, leading back to homeostasis… but you can enjoy it damnit!
I get seratonin via sex and I ain’t never got pregnant. 🤷♂️
Lmao sex isn’t real.
Men be like
You didn’t even agreed to come, much less the rules
Apparently I’m the result of a ripped condom and I’ve already made it known that I wished they’d have aborted. They divorced within a year of my birth, neither had any business being a parent. I still care about them enough that I don’t want them to suffer at all so I’m just waiting until they pass so I can do the job myself.
you waiting for them to die to get a kid or to kill yourself too?
Waiting for them to die so I can die without hurting anyone.
Can't selflessly have a baby and consent is impossible.
Feel bad for people named EULA
no one had a choice, the cycle continues
disavow
BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
People be like “life’s shit” and then they consume food designed to keep them addicted, media picked by an algorithm to keep them watching and move less than a sloth in a day.
You’re not forced to be a wage slave. Just go live in the woods, plan a heist, get rid of a CEO or something like that. Live a little.
nialv7@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You gonna practice what you preach?
BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I quit my phone addiction when they added YouTube shorts and the Reddit API changes, I stopped eating processed foods during covid, because I was bored and learned how to cook (I gained 80 pounds due to overeating on my own cooking…) And am forced to move because I’ve picked up RC driving as a hobby and I don’t really like to drive safely.