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True Freedom

by Niklas Haas on February 9, 2020

Tagged as: depression, life, society, rant.

Antinatalism is the ultimate freedom. Think about it: Billions of years of evolution, thousands upon thousands of generations of slaves toiling away their miserable, scripted lives - shackled by their own instincts - just to produce you, that special individual who has managed to achieve what nobody in your history has: liberty.

We are no longer slaves to our breeding instincts. No longer bound by societal duty to produce and care for offspring. Put another way: No longer in need of further evolution. We are evolution’s final form - the ultimate conclusion of our species’ unspoken quest for greatness. The first generation in our long, long lineage that has finally reached the inevitable peak of enlightenment - and cast off its own continued existence as meaningless. There is no transcendence from this point, for such an existence would contradict itself. In essence, we are humanity’s final form.

Everybody that came before us has faded into obscurity - but we are special, for we are their collective end. The kings upon the thrones of our family tree. Fixed points in history. Indeed, our entire ancestry has lived for the sole purpose of enabling us to do with our lives whatever we want! Doesn’t this thought excite you? We stand on the shoulders of giants, giants who would now look upon us with eager anticipation to see what type of person the fruit of their unimaginable efforts is. Watching you literally throw away your life, but with childish glee in their eyes, as they finally realize how satisfying it feels to know the end is in sight.

And if anything, this viewpoint provides a cautionary perspective against suicide. If you are the end of your bloodline, why make it a short one? Might as well put a colorful crown on it. Go on, give your ancestors and yourself something amusing to watch. Your life is literally more special than that of hormone slaves, so don’t feel like you have to be held down by their societal norms and expectations, either. Society exists to help perpetuate the cycle, but you’ve already escaped from that cycle. If anything, society should be working for you - especially your parents. Remember that when they birthed you, they basically decided that their lives had failed and they wanted a second try. You are that second try. You owe them nothing, but they owe you everything - every scrap of resource that they failed spending on their own lives, is yours to take and do with as you please. There’s no need to feel any amounts of guilt, obligation, or pressure to live up to their expectations, because this is the contract they willingly entered when they consciously conceived you. Sound insane? You bet! Such is the folly of hormone slaves.

It’s tempting to label such existential apathy as depression, but this is only half the story. Depression is the result of a conflict between an irrational, biological desire to want to follow the script given to us by society, and a rational, intellectual lack of motivation for doing so. Depression is realizing how pointless existence is, but still clinging onto fake and vague hopes and dreams. In a way, depression is fundamentally caused by society. Caused by people telling us that our lifestyles are somehow wrong. That we’re problematic, and need to be “healed” into scripted zombies. Overcoming depression can be done in one of two ways: either you manage to medicate yourself to the point where you numb your thoughts and “reintegrate” into society. This is the path that the health industry wants you to take. But there’s another path: a long and difficult journey of self-acceptance, of gaining support by realizing that we are neither broken nor wrong for feeling this way - if anything, we’re among the most enlightened people alive. On the steps of that journey, every bit of positive encouragement helps. I’m still nowhere near that level of self love, but I’m slowly making my way there; writing out my thoughts when I’m in one of my better moods will hopefully give me the fuel I need to reflect on when hormones get the better of me.