…the world would be a lot better off without us. It’s the day before Thanksgiving so I have been contemplating what there is to give thanks for. I hate to admit I am a nihilist, but I really do feel it would an overall benefit to the world if human beings were, I dunno, raptured to some other alternate reality. It wouldn’t be an unqualified good. Dogs, for instance, would dramatically reduce in numbers. About 100,000 years ago, dogs bet the farm, evolutionarily speaking, on us. It’s been one hell of a successful gamble for the species, although not necessarily a good thing for a lot of particular dogs. The overall number of cows and chickens would also be drastically reduced. Wild cattle and wild chickens are far less successful than their domesticated cousins.

It’s too late for a lot of things, too. The Passenger Pigeon is still toast, even if we stop having children today. The McMurdo Ice Shelf is still pretty much reduced. I don’t know what happens to the atmosphere. We’ve dumped a lot of carbon dioxide into it and it could be that it’s already oscillating towards some other equilibrium. I read P.D. James’ The Children of Men and I don’t know that I like the idea of a society without children. I think it would be a very strange thing indeed. I don’t believe in the Singularity. But if we all disappeared tomorrow, in 100 years, it seems to me that for most life on the planet–marine, insect, plant–life would be different in a way that pleases me. No one would be killing off species while understanding the consequences of their actions but being unable to bring themselves (as a species) to stop doing it.

That’s the thing. I hate that we know we’re doing it. And that we are having such difficulty stopping. I live in a nice big house that eats up large quantities of resources and is part of a city complex that has vastly change the ecosystem where I live. (And that’s without even talking about fire ants. Lets not get into fire ants.)

I don’t even think we’re unnatural. I think we’re just as much a part of evolution as everything else. I just think we’re the equivalent of the Permian-Triassic transition/extinction event. And aesthetically and morally I dislike being part of it. The only thing I can say that I’ve done that in any way shows any commitment to improving the planet is to not have children. I went out and got one anyway, by marrying his father, but I didn’t actually add one to the existing pool. This seems a paltry gesture. I didn’t actually want to do the whole childbearing thing, so that made it an easy sacrifice.

So today I went out and bought food for Thanksgiving. Most of it trucked long distances and involving, I am sure, vast water and fuel resources. And tomorrow we’ll cook it and eat it. I won’t think about this much. I love Thanksgiving, it’s my favorite holiday. I wish that everybody would be sitting down to a good meal tomorrow without fear or suffering. I don’t hate people. I don’t want bad things to happen to people. Some of my best friends are people. I’m just not sure I approve of our existence.

Have I mentioned that Rachael is living in one of those goddam hippie communes in Austin?

You can imagine how horrified I am at that.

Every year, they have a birthday party to celebrate the founding of the goddam hippie commune about thirty years ago.

The latest one was last weekend. A few people showed up.

They sat around and quietly reminisced.

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Pic Credit to: Anna Raab, from FaceBook.