The childfree are ungovernable
Why the capitalist ruling class wants you to have as many children as possible.
Recently, I discussed the rise of anti-natalist sentiment among younger generations, and why having children has been subverted into a moral dilemma. Today, I want to expand on some of those thoughts and explore an underappreciated reason governments and ruling classes are clamping down on reproduction laws and abortion rights while turning up the please-have-children-to-save-our-collapsing-system propaganda to max volume: control.
Growth demands bodies
If you’re a long time Beneath the Pavement reader, you likely hold the view that capitalism as a socioeconomic system based on endless growth on finite resources is inherently unsustainable. That is just a fact, and not a particularly surprising one. Not really interesting, honestly. We’ve discussed this and related circumstances in significant depth, and there’s no need to reiterate well-treaded talking points.
Endless growth, naturally, requires a growing population. While Western societies in recent decades have stopped ‘producing’ in that regard, the Global South has, for better or worse, stepped up, and continues to willingly supply an army of fleshy working machines. Those battalions—left with no other viable choice—constantly make their perilous way to the West where they take on jobs Westerners feel too good for (when they are not drowning in the Mediterranean, that is).
An example: here in Austria, you will struggle to find Austrian construction workers (except in leading roles, of course). Almost all of them are Romanian, Polish, Slovak, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and so on — my father one of them — and now that Eastern Europeans are becoming too expensive, more and more come from the Middle East and/or Sub-Saharan and similar regions.
In short: the imperial core demands a continuous supply of exploitable and cheap labor, whatever it takes. It’s why the far right always struggles to fulfill promises of ethnic homogeneity and closed borders — there would be no one left to do the dirty work. Hans-Jürgen over there will not dig that ditch and unclog your pipes; Ahmed, who just fled a bloody civil war and lost half his family, will—because he must.
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Stay together for the kids
This is all very clear and well-documented, at least among leftist cycles. What perhaps is less obvious is the topic I want to expand on in this essay: having children is not only a moral dilemma, but also most often the end of radical sentiment and, in many ways, freedom itself.
It is very hard to protest, organize, riot, and set police cars on fire when you have mouths to feed and mortgages to pay; it is much harder for women to divorce and break up when young children are involved, even if and when the relationship turns abusive and violent; it is harder even to crave any sort of significant political change, no matter how unjust and parasitic the system becomes. In short: children — not growing older, as is usually stated — make you more conservative.
How often have you come across that one couple that constantly fights and hates each other but stays together ‘for the kids,’ and then, unsurprisingly yet infuriatingly, another child is on the way. (The craving for a stable status quo is even more common in cultures where divorces and break-ups are seen as personal failure or insult to God — such as the Bosnian catholic-conservative ‘nation’ I come from.)
What the fuck?! you want to scream, but you don’t. They accept their status quo, they stay together for the damn kids (a great blink-182 song), they struggle to keep those mouths fed and warm, they cower at the mention of change. Controlling and abusing your partner is just so much easier when you can hold the kids over them. It’s on them to take the risk of change, then; on them if the children suffer. In this way, abusive fathers hold onto their abusive power dynamic.
It is understandable, in some ways, and despite my tone, I do not condemn anyone. Do whatever you want. It’s your life. Have as many children as you like and deal with the consequences, good and bad.
Follow the script (or don’t)
Hate local politics? Fascism rising in your neighborhood? Considering moving to a different country? — Think of the children, first!
Not sure about purchasing a new car or video game console? Not sure about taking up an expensive hobby? — Think of the children! What about their needs?
Struggling to make ends meet? Your house taken from you? Debt crushing your will to continue? — You failed the kids.
It often appears to me that the majority of people blindly follow certain scripts in life — school, marriage, house, children, retirement, death — written and propagated by institutions, without ever questioning their validity. Does the script truly make you happy? Perhaps it doesn’t, and you know it, but it’s too late now, isn’t it? You’re in too deep, people are depending on you, there’s bills to pay. Your midlife crisis can be treated with drugs. You’ll get over it. On your deathbed, you will say, “I did my duty,” and people will understand.
All of us who work and pay bills are cogs in an abstract machine — we know that. It’s just that having children turns you into a particularly well-oiled cog. No more hiccups, no more setbacks, no more holding up the conveyor belt; you are a perfect machine.
Families are easy to coerce into doing things they do not want. They have too much to lose. If I lose my job, fail to pay my bills, and become homeless, a few people will be sad and perhaps offer me a place to stay, but no children will be traumatized and hurt. It would be just me, and no one to forcibly accompany my abyss.
So, yes. Governments and ruling classes and corporations want you to have as many children as possible. They crave those sweet, sweet disillusioned and coerced workers, and they will hold your children over you, demanding absolute obedience. Should that stop you from having children, if you want them? Fuck, no. Live your only life the way you see fit. There is no honor in being a martyr and sacrificing your happiness. No one will reward you and death awaits us all, anyway. This is the absurdity of existence, and this is your life.
Thank you for reading,
Antonio Melonio
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Read my novels (they are extremely weird)
take on jobs Westerners feel too good for (when they are not drowning in the Mediterranean, that is).
Nah dude, I applied for some of these jobs (farm labour normally done by migrant workers) and they are not on offer, I was never responded to and many of the adverts actually stated speaking Polish was a requirement.
Reality is they want migrant workers because they will not know their rights, and lack the language skills to get them enforced. They want slaves. We’re not thinking we’re too good for those jobs, they’re thinking we would not let them abuse us as much as they want to abuse their workers, so they find people who will be too vulnerable to resist.
You don't have to have kids if you don't want to, and you can justify that choice to yourself as you see fit. But the assertion that people with kids can't be radical is unfounded. Most labor militants and many if not most guerrillas have had kids, for instance.