Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that existence is inherently harmful, and while we cannot change our own birth, we can influence the future of potential lives.
David Benatar’s quote reflects a philosophical stance known as anti-natalism, arguing that being brought into existence causes harm and that even the best lives have significant suffering. He emphasizes that recognition of this harm is crucial and implies a moral responsibility to prevent the birth of future individuals to mitigate further suffering, thus highlighting the burdens of existence versus the absence of life.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the morality of bringing children into the world.
It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.
Conviction is not merely an opinion. It is something rooted so deeply in the conscience that to change a conviction would be to change the very essence of who you are.
Our First Amendment expresses a far different calculus for regulating speech than for regulating nonexpressive conduct and that is as it should be. The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose, but your right to express your ideas should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears.
Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all.
Meditation is an insight that all goals are false. Meditation is an understanding that desires don't lead anywhere. Seeing that... And this is not a belief that you can get from me or from Buddha or from Jesus. This is not knowledge; you will have to see it. You can see it right now!
Every day People straighten up the hair, why not the heart?
When the institutions of money rule the world, it is perhaps inevitable that the interests of money will take precedence over the interests of people. What we are experiencing might best be described as a case of money colonizing life. To accept this absurd distortion of human institutions and purpose should be considered nothing less than an act of collective, suicidal insanity.
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