HINTUNG’S STORY

I congratulate the members of NO KIDDING! on two points: You are makers of history and you have made the right choice in opting for childlessness.

The future of mankind, to a large extent, depends upon the sacrifice of childless people. The support system of the earth has undergone such burden that it will sooner or later give way. Although Canada, heretofore a thinly populated country, has not keenly felt the pressure of population, we cannot turn a blind eye to this urgent worldwide problem.

It seems a natural law that the over-proliferation of a species, animal or plant, at the expense of others, is bound to court ecological disaster. We have heard about the rabbits in Australia in the past, probably toads in Queensland at present, and exotic conch and snails in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Now, the over-prolific species is none other than man. Man has been the cause of extinction of many species of animals and plants. Unlimited reproduction, which unbalances the environment, would ultimately turn on man himself.

True, we have not been reduced to standing-room-only on Earth. Nevertheless, man does not need only one square foot to stand in. He needs far greater resources from a very large area. We need fresh water, metals and energy from deep underground, imports and exports, food, clothing, building materials, entertainment and information from the farthest corner of the planet. It is not the question of space that can or cannot hold the material bodies of mankind, but the resources that have to support all these consumers. Even if a person regulates his/her life in strict accordance with the Green Principle, one can’t avoid using energy -- we all need to cook our food and light our way, not to mention keep warm. Who knows how long fossil fuel will last? Nor can one refrain from creating and dumping garbage, including excrement; even essential medical service pollutes. If one has a refrigerator or even a computer, one has a hand in the thinning of the ozone layer. In a word, green life alone cannot save the earth, except perhaps escalating to dark green; i.e. green life plus greatly-reduced fertility.

Global cooperation is essential to man’s future, and time is running out! I am looking forward to the rapid expansion of NO KIDDING! like wildfire or the spread of Christianity in Europe in the first millennium.

I would venture to say that I have discovered a momentous truth which I, as a responsible person, have the duty to impart to others. In respect to the parent-child relationship, no one seems to have the idea that the parent actually owes more to the child than vice-versa. Out of his/her desire of the flesh, a human being is given, without his knowledge, a crippled existence which lasts till death -- with countless joys and sorrows in between (the latter far outweighing the former, according to Maupertuis in Essai de Philosophie Morale). Whatever the controversy, a rational parent ought not to exempt him/herself from the responsibility of the child’s happiness and suffering in later life -- especially the pain. He/she can’t say, "I only gave it life, the rest is up to the child." Modern medicine has discovered that many diseases, particularly the incurable ones, are inherent or hereditary, i.e., thanks to one’s parents or ancestors. Wouldn’t it break the heart of those parents who came to know that their children’s end was initially determined at birth? "What crime have these children committed that they should be born?" a philosopher queries. Isn’t it ironic that some highly respected parents sentence their children to death by giving them life!

The basic reason for my being childless is a physical one -- I have a weaker-than-average sexual urge, and have never had the desire of marriage. In fact, it would not be difficult for me to remain chaste all my life, though this is never a virtue in my eyes.

At the age of eighteen, I started teaching school to support, single-handedly, a family of ten: both parents, four brothers, two sisters, and an amah. Not until three years later, did a younger brother begin to share my burden and pay off family debts little by little. Years after, he entered college and later got married. Working part-time and studying simultaneously, I managed to get through college with a B.A. degree in Chinese, almost at the cost of my health.

My family hardship did not, however, prejudice me against life. At least, I do not blame my childlessness on it. But it did facilitate my "stupendous" discovery of the fact that parents owe their children much more than children owe their parents. Children owe to their parents their existence, which is imperfect or even crippled. Any one of our billions of cells, which we take from our parents, can be cancerous. Nothing, not even tender, loving care, can compensate for this damage. In short, life is but a crippled existence; before conferring which, a potential parent would do well to consider with rational forethought and introspection!

I founded the Ferrian Society in Hong Kong. Our motto is: "Love, without births." Anyone who genuinely loves his would-be children will hold himself responsible for all the joys and sorrows that will fall upon them in later life. Were he far-sighted enough to foresee how they would encounter numerous disappointments, frustrations, defeats and injuries, and eventually undergo the "consummate" suffering of senility leading up to the termination of life, he might not be so careless as to let life slip through accidents.