a Life Is Difficult entry

I had a genuine talk with a solicitor today. It helped that it was for worldwide refugees and backed by the UN (interesting!) and that he was a Japanophile (we talked about Japan too). Anyway, I like it when strangers become human beings.

However! I have no intention of saving refugees with monthly donations. Which I told him, but I used the excuse that I have no income, which is true but not the main reason. I don’t want to feed / give medicine to refugees because there are too many people in the world. I know it’s not fair, but sometimes things need to take their course. If Somalia is no longer a place where Homo sapien can survive, then maybe no one should live there. So they migrate to a land where there is food / water, okay. But if there are too many people crowding Kenya because of that, the number of people need to decrease.

It sounds heartless, but only because us first-world country people are wrecked with guilt! Okay, no, that was too AynRandian. I care about people, but I care A LOT about people. Saving people now = killing SO MANY later when the earth is overOVERfilled with people and famine & war are inevitable. [Oh man, I just realized: maybe I only care about it when it is a threat to my future generations..]

It’s difficult!! Yes, we have medicine to cure people, so why not stop suffering and cure them all? It makes sense and it’s nice. I like nice! With my donation, a child can have a blanket so they’re not freezing at night. I like having blankets too, and it’s only $15. Ah, feel good! But then what?

It’s hard because I understand completely how awesome it is to help those who are in need. But I don’t see how it helps anything in the long run. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I wonder what Confucius would say. Or Socrates.

And, like, I want kids.