Poll: Should our species be exempt from culling?

[The Gnome King]

As the most destructive species on the planet, why are we not taking more drastic measures to lower our population? We're quick to kill thousands of animals for overpopulating, yet they aren't nearly as dangerous to the planet's wellbeing as we are.
Are we collectively too arrogant to see how disgusting our species really is?

I don't support killing people to control population; every single study done shows women, when better educated and obtaining access to birth control, will limit their family size willingly. It has happened in every 3rd world nation that has improved the living conditions and education of its women.

So I'd say that through a combination of education, birth control, improving the lot of life to poor countries... we could "cull" our population in a way that wouldn't be painful and in fact the opposite; it would be a Good and Kind thing to do.

I do place human life over animal life; and I'm a vegan myself. I don't go out of my way to kill or eat animals, but I do believe that humans have more intrinsic value. Humans have a capacity for emotional depth, pain, suffering, love, and joy that I believe animals might have to some degree, but not to the degree of humans and humanity in general.

In other words, while I'm a vegan, if I had to, say, kill off half the world's horse population to save one human life I'd do it in a heartbeat. I also support animal testing for medical reasons. (And I'm a vegan. How weird, huh? I'm just not one of those militant PETA vegans.)

 

[Daverson]

Some people would say being owned by the state for the first 40 years of your life is slavery. But let's face it, you already are owned by your state. You pay taxes, don't you?

Taxes that pay for the roads we drive on, the garbage collectors that clean up our streets, the police who protect us from internal threat, the army who protects us from external threat and other things.

The police are the example we want here. I'm glad you mentioned them.

So, let's say you're fed up with a particular law (such as, not being allowed to own a certain make of car), and decide you don't want the police, what do you do? Stop paying taxes? The thing is, the social contract isn't something you can just decide you don't want to be part of anymore, whether you like it or not, you have to obey the law. You have to pay taxes. You have[i/] to do these things, because if you don't, you'll be locked up. That's what society does to people who don't do what it wants.

You aren't owned by any one person in particular, but you're not a free man, not by a long stretch.

 

[b3nn3tt]

A cull simply would not work. Who decides who gets culled? And are they then exempt from the cull?

There's no feasible way to implement it, so the only way forward is to look into possible ways to make other planets livable, so that when the earth finally gets over-crowded there is an alternative place for people to live

 

[2718]

Why is it any more wrong than killing any other species?

We are sentient to a higher degree than animals.

That is the big point of my question. What makes us so special?

Our ability to reason.

For hundreds of millions of years, animals have lived harmoniously with the planet. In all that time, we are the only species to be aiding in the planets destruction. Why are we so deserving of existence but other more respectable species aren't?

No matter how beautiful something is, without intelligence to appreciate that beauty, it is absolutely pointless. No matter how "harmonious" and "natural" any biosphere might be, it has absolutely no point or purpose whatsoever. Without intelligence it's worthless. And as far as we know, humans are the only intelligent species in the entire universe. Until we prove otherwise, human survival is more important than ANYTHING else.

This is why I am in favour of enviromental destruction; if we make the Earth less habitable, we will be more motivated to get off this rock. If we spread to more worlds than one, our chances of survival are greatly increased. Staying on one world is incredibly dangerous, and the destruction of ONE biosphere is a very small price to pay for preserved intelligence. What I am saying is that it's worth sacrificing an infinite number of non-sentient species if it gives humans any increase in chance of survival, no matter how slight.

 

[Cheesus333]

Let the ones who are promoting culling, be the first to be culled.

But you just... but that is... nevermind.

Anyway, it's pretty obvious from a two minute walk around any population centre that the world has more people than it needs. Not necessarily because there's too many, just because a majority of the billions of us - myself included - don't really do a lot to contribute to the growth and prosperity of the human race. Worse still, a lot of people (like criminals) are actually pushing us backwards.

I'm not saying kill these people - I don't think that rounding up the worst people we can find and sticking them in a furnace is the right way to go at all. But something needs to be done about their effect on the species, or we're not going anywhere fast.

 

[Belluavir]

What bothers me most about things like this is the idea that animals and the Earth (which is a living thing?) live in peace and harmony and perfect balance.
I have a dog and I know that if he was smart enough to build a machine that would cover the world in his own shit, he'd do it, and he'd love every second of rolling around in it and eating it, and he'd kill every kangaroo he saw just so he can roll around in its corpse.

 

[Vault101]

hell no..I thourght we were better than the killing thing

oh and for those who love to trumpet "humans are bastards!" honeslty you think its that bad? then kill your self and there will be one less bastard in the world....oh whats that? you dont want to die? then stop complaining

honestly most people are jsut trying to get by and are not activley killing kittens

 

[Vault101]

I have to say that most of you guys are sick fucks.

If you want to "cull" the human population, there is something seriously wrong with you.

If you are worried about population growth, chill the fuck out, we aren't anywhere near the predicted limit of the population the earth can sustain and by the time we get there there will be a bunch of new technology that pushes that limit even further.

If you are up for limiting reproduction or preventing overpopulation or the destruction of the human race do us and your ideology a favour and fucking kill yourselves.

ohh but didn't you know? ALL humans are basterds....excpet for me....and my family....I should be the one who chooses!

ughhh yeah this thread is freking me out

 

[Darius Brogan]

I'm all for it. A Human life means no more to me than an animals... as horrible as that sounds.

I've even got the solution to the 'Yeah sure, but only if it's not me' problem: Regardless of opinion, put every living humans name into a computer and have it randomly select a given percentage out of every country in the world.

Those who get selected, get culled, those who don't get selected, cry in relief because they're cowards and are afraid of their own deaths.

 

[badgersprite]

Only if everyone who votes for culling are the ones who get to die and everyone who is against it lives.

People who believe in sick shit like this only believe in it because they think they're special snowflakes who are more worthy of life than other people. Screwing over other people is fine as long as you get all your lovely special privileges to feed your delusions of entitlement, right?

 

[DustyDrB]

Wow. A little over half of The Escapist forum goers are in favor of mass killings to avoid a problem that's predicted to correct itself naturally. Good to know...

 

[Darius Brogan]

Our species should not be exempt from culling because there's no difference between a human and a rabbit, fox, fish, tapeworm, whathaveyou...

 

[Ciaran Lunt]

I think eventually someone's got to do something that will be very unpopular and pragmatic for now we should probably remove all child benefits which in the west should slow us down for now could spend that money creating a better university system (just my opinion. but if we don't do something we are going to end up with something like this. I suggest giving more guns to hill billys and just encourage natural selection. maybe anyone who has been injured doing something incredibly stupid should not get nhs support by stupid i mean a bullet wound caused by your freind trying to shoot a beer can out of your hand

 

[Valkyrie101]

Human wellbeing > planet's wellbeing.

The planet is, ultimately, irrelevant. Humanity is the only thing that matters, Earth is just a temporary home base for us. You call us disgusting for destroying the environment, but what's the point of the environment without us?

It's point is to foster life, and we're not the only species appreciative of the lives we're given. There are millions of species on the planet, and we're ruining it for all of them.

What's the point of non-sentient life? Actually, we are the only species that appreciates the life we have. Because none of the others can think.

 

[Wicky_42]

We're the cullers not the cullees, lol. We make the rules, fuck everything else! Sure, we're gonna bring about our own destruction, but at least it will be on our terms

Go us...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Depends, should a morally aware species support immoral measures?

 

[weirdsoup]

Culling? Not too sure about that. However, a mandatory "retirement" age of say 65 where people are euthanized wouldn't be a bad idea. This would reduce the amount of money governments have to spend on health and welfare for OAPs.

I would also introduce restrictions on breeding. I think that for people to have kids they should have to do more than just pass the practical exam. I think we should be looking at things like eduction level and physiological testing. This would again be saving government money as I've know girls in school in the UK who's big plan for life was to leave school at 16, get pregnant by the first guy who comes along so they can get a council house and live on benefits for their entire life. Something about that plan just plain disgusts me, so I think putting a stop to it is the way to go. More money saved by the government AND us as we're not having our taxes wasted on these morons. This would also, I believe, help cut down on crime as these sort of people tend to be from the sections of society where law and order mean very little.

Now, there's certain sections of society who you'll not stop rutting, so until they're licensed they'll need contraceptive injections, these are 99% effective and last about 3 months. Anyone who fails to comply, the answer is simple. Termination of any pregnancy and 12 months incarceration.

So, I'm not in favour of just random culling, but I do think that the human race's gene pool could use a little chlorine down the shallow end