I often tell people that I hate kids. This is sort of true, but not quite. I don’t hate all kids. Some are really nice, some are very creative. Some are quiet and polite, and I think those kids are great. But most kids are monsters. And you know what? It really isn’t their fault. Now, just because it’s not their fault doesn’t make them any less of a mess, and deserving of hate, but if you’re looking to solve the problem you should go to the source. And that is the parents.
Why do bad ideas linger? We know the world isn’t flat, nor is it only 6,000 years old, that dinosaurs existed, and there is no God, and yet these obviously flawed beliefs persist. And they exist because of bad parents, so we should just do away with the concept of the family entirely.
People have kids, and in small numbers that is an acceptable thing to do. The issues stem from when those same people want to raise those kids. They are selfish, and if they didn’t have kids entirely by accident, they had them for their own benefit. They want the kids to be like them, have the same values as them, and then later support them in their old age.
But here’s a message to every single parent out there: you suck. Your parents sucked. Your values, beliefs, and ideas are all terrible, and you’re passing on every irrational fear, neurosis, old wives tale and folk belief that you know. These things come from less enlightened times when people thought lightning was caused by angry Gods, and these ideas aren’t helping anyone. Not to mention you have no experience raising kids (unless you’ve had way too many, and that’s an even bigger problem), so you don’t know what the heck you’re doing.
And this holds everyone back. Not just your own kid, but everyone. You are destroying the planet, promoting inequality and nepotism, and celebrating talentless celebrity and the continuation of inept dynasties. None of these are good things.
Ponder for a moment upon the idea of inheritance. If you are well-off, your kids will inherit what you have, and be well-off as well, not because they deserve it, but by virtue of being born to you and not someone else. And not only is that the definition of unfair, but almost inevitably this spoiled child is going to turn into a useless human being that can’t tie their own shoes.
But who cares about other people, right? Let’s talk in words you understand. Let’s talk about how that affects you, personally. These bad beliefs are holding back medical research, and greedy lobbyists are holding back laws that protect the environment. So you’re more likely to die from things that we might have already cured, and your children, whom you profess are so important, are inheriting a world that is becoming less and less habitable. Climate deniers are all Christian, and Christianity only exists because people are forcing it on their kids, because their parents forced it on them. Break the cycle. You don’t need to make others suffer, just because you have suffered.
This is an argument I’ve heard before, but when I was younger I thought of it myself, and fantasized about how cool it would be if it happened. Imagine that you were able to destroy every copy of the Bible, both hard and digital copies. Then you waited 2-3 generations (because there are people who actually memorize it, if not in whole then in part), and only then tried to rewrite it. What would that look like? Sure, a few stories might persist, as they had been passed down, but on the whole this new Bible would look nothing like the one we have now. This is because it is not the divine word of God, but a collection of naive ideas written by people who didn’t know any better a long time ago.
Now imagine doing the same thing with all of the physics textbooks in the world. Destroy them all, wait 2-3 generations, and try to figure out physics again. All of the formulas, eventually, would come back exactly the same. This is because physics is something real, and true, and reflects the world we live in. Christianity, is not.
The Bible is just a storybook, and while there is some value to that (I love stories, and they can be great at teaching lessons), it is not a source of truth or a prescription for how we should live or act. But, because of how families work, it continues on. And evangelists and politicians get rich playing off of that, at the expense of everyone else.
Why do you think they are willing to deny climate change, and let the planet get worse, when it is absolutely clear that it is for a fact happening? Because the planet won’t become uninhabitable in their lifetime, and there’s money in it for them. They are selling you out. If you take away their ability to profit from it, it will stop, and the world will become a better place.
So the solution is the end of the family. Stop teaching Christianity to kids, and there will be no more Christians, and the world will be saved.
How do we do this? You still let people get married, and have kids, but after a year with its biological mother, you move it to a community home. Every kid gets raised by professional parents, in “families” of 15 or so. They all get the same access to food, housing, and education. None of the kids get special inheritances or treatment. As they grow up, you move smarter kids to better schools, and their lives play out according to the merits of their own achievements, and not according to how much money their parents had.
This not only makes them all start off on equal footing with an equal chance of success, but it protects them from bad ideas and bad parenting. Parenting would be a job, that you would have to train for. Like teachers, they would be subject to scrutiny and evaluation.
Once the kids turn 18, they start having to figure out life on their own. And at that point, if they wanted to join a religion they would be welcome to do so. But you know what? I have a suspicion that most of them wouldn’t, and within a generation or two all predatory religions would be gone.
All of these community homes would be paid for by the state. The kids would not be required to work for their living, or be in any kind of debt when they grow up. Yes, that means that all the adults would be paying for the raising of the kids, but you know what? Raising kids is supposed to be a community thing. Everyone is supposed to be involved. And on top of that, since people aren’t paying to raise their own kids anymore, they should have the money to afford this.
And we can take it a little further. If kids want to start working when they turn 18, fine, let them do that. But if they want to go on to university, have that paid for by the government as well. Because now they are all our kids. They are children of our society, not “Gavin and Stacey’s kid,” so it’s up to all of us to raise them and make sure they have the best chance of success. Everything would be better if we just stopped letting people raise their own kids.