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The Human Project



Posted in the comments to my piece on depopulation: “1984 + some kind of depopulation scenario”.


Notice that this movie is coming out on December 25th, Christmas day, the day associated with birth, with saving the world, etc. The movie website features the tagline: “NO CHILDREN. NO FUTURE. NO HOPE.” (Who paid for this movie, do you think? Who chose this particular message and storyline to promote to prime-time? What do you think they are hoping to see as a cultural response - aside from making money, of course?)

Some fascinating comments left about it on YouTube as well, especially:

What kind of message is sending to say there’s no hope unless women have babies? Do people know how chauvenistic and sexist that is? How much it sets women back? And of course it’s an African woman. More stereotypes there. I mean, really, whose idea was this movie? What century are they living in? This makes me hate PoA now. It’s disgusting and degrading.

This seems like the cultural clash (cognitive dissonance) this movie is carefully calculated to cause in people. It is the clash between modern values of individual freedom (especially for women) between the simple biological truth that there literally isn’t any hope “unless women have babies.” Interesting that this point of nature is seen today as “disgusting and degrading” against the backdrop of our current cultural situation.

And someone follows it up with the always available, “Oh calm down, it’s just a movie.” As though movies didn’t do things, didn’t push buttons, didn’t inspire people to action. It is this viewpoint that entertainment is just harmless fun which makes sure that the sharp conflicts it provokes stay buried in the subconscious where they drive behavior without our conscious awareness.

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6 Reader Responses

  1. alistair Says:
    September 17th, 2006 at 3:10 pm

    loaded issues always generate strong comments. if women don`t have babies……….who will? where`s the foetus going to gestate, in a box?

  2. Jenn Says:
    September 17th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

    I can’t remember where the sources are but I have read a few articles from people absolutly disgusted that there are married couples out there with no desire to have kids. the sexism lies in the suggestion that that’s ALL we are for, and we have no choice. It’s an unlikely scenario that every woman will be unable to have kids. There is adoption, surrogate motherhood, and other more scientific methods of ensuring life.

    I read in a disinfo book that if every women had one kid, the population would decrease and if every woman had three kids the population would increase. I once watched the 700 club (don’t ask) and they featured a trend where families are having up to 18 kids. When asked about it they said “we want to raise a big family that will share our political and religious views” The basic idea is that they want to breed more concervatives.

    Anyway, just a few thoughts about breeding.

  3. alistair Says:
    September 17th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

    our species is on the decline and there isn`t one clear factor to blame for it. certainly people of child-rearing age are being dazzled by new cars and bigger houses and a greater commitment to careers, which tends to detract from parental roles. to blame women for the problem isn`t the answer. men and women are set against eachother socially, financially, legally and domestically to the point where there is so much stress on people to find partners to meet thier list of needs that many are not pairing. i am recently singe again and it is a war zone out there where looks, money, scheduling and emotional baggage are all dumped into the mix to add to the confusion.
    the conspiracy-minded might say that it`s an orwellian plot to depopulate the indigenous caucasian society via the media……………..there are days when i wonder.

  4. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 17th, 2006 at 6:04 pm

    the conspiracy-minded might say that it`s an orwellian plot to depopulate the indigenous caucasian society via the media…

    Just saw this quote right after I made a post about exactly that.

    http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006...17/gender-roles-population-reduction/

    I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with this speculation!

  5. alistair Says:
    September 18th, 2006 at 12:16 am

    when one wears the conspiracy hat, one tends toward the dystopian view. if you were creating a dystopia what would you do with the useless eaters?

  6. Nathan Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 10:27 am

    What kind of message is sending to say there’s no hope unless women have babies? Do people know how chauvenistic and sexist that is? How much it sets women back?

    The alternative being… I dunno, women will always be ground under the heel of the patriarchy until all human reproduction takes place asexually in artificial wombs?



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