---
title: Better Never to Have Been
author: Ben
type: quotes
date: -001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00
draft: true
url: '/?post_type=quotes&p=6922'

---
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40441396

&#8216;&#8230;in a democracy those committed to non-procreation could never, in the long run, prevail politically against those committed to procreation.  
Moreover, it is curious how democracy favours breeding over immigration. Offspring have a presumed right to citizenship, while potential immigrants do not. Imagine a polarized state consisting of two opposing ethnic groups. One increases its size by breeding and the other by immigration. Depending on who holds power, the group that grows by immigration will either be prevented from growing or it will be accused of colonialism. But why should democracy favour one indigenous group over another merely because one breeds rather than increases by immigration? Why should breeding be unlimited but immigration curtailed where political outcomes are equally sensitive to both ways of enhancing population?&#8217;  
&#8211; p 11&#8211;2

&#8216;Conscious life, although but a blip on the radar of cosmic time, is laden with suffering&#8212;suffering that is directed to no end other than its own perpetuation.&#8217;  
&#8211; p 83