When I was younger, I was extremely struck by the realization that my choice to donate or not meant the difference between someone else’s living and dying. A lot of decisions started to look very starkly wrong.
I remember telling my dad that I had decided it would be immoral for me to have children, because they would take too much of my time and money away from better causes. “It doesn't sound like this lifestyle is going to make you happy,” he said.
“My happiness is not the point,” I told him.
A few years later, I was deeply bitter about the decision. I had always wanted and intended to be a parent, and I felt thwarted. It was making me sick and miserable. I looked at the rest of my life as more of an obligation than a joy.
So my husband and I decided that it wasn't worth having a breakdown over. We decided to set aside enough for our personal spending that we could reasonably afford to raise a child. Looking back at my journal entries from before and after the decision, I'm struck by how much difference it made in my outlook. Immediately after we gave ourselves permission to be parents, I was excited about the future again. I don't know if or when we'll actually have a kid, but just the possibility helps me feel things will be all right. And I suspect that feeling of satisfaction with my own life lets me be more help to the world than I would have as a broken-down altruist.
I've attended Quaker meeting for the last ten years. The founder, George Fox, gave his followers this advice in 1658: “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing.”
Quakers have tended to emphasize the part about “that of God in everyone,” with its implication about equality: how can it be right to keep slaves, for example, if the slave has an element of the divine in her?
But my favorite part is that word “cheerfully.” Fox was a man who had been jailed and beaten for his religious beliefs – surely he had a right to be bitter. Quakerism later developed a stern and dour style, but George Fox was not about that.
Some things I can do cheerfully. It turns out that giving up children was not one of them. Other people would have no problem giving up parenthood, but I suspect that everyone has something that would cause an inordinate amount of pain to sacrifice.
So test your boundaries, and see what changes you can make that will help others without costing you too dearly. But when you find that something is making you bitter, stop. Effective altruism is not about driving yourself to a breakdown. We don't need people making sacrifices that leave them drained and miserable. We need people who can walk cheerfully over the world, or at least do their damnedest.
I had to check whether this extract was called childless or cheerful... Cheerfully.... And hmmm both some what emotive, on the global scale I think if we are ever going to bring about any level of balance is going to come at a cost. Let's face it the luxury many westerners enjoy has already cost if not our wildlife and wilderness many people living in poor resource rich countries, should we make our selves sick to help others, obviously not, was the instance in the extract was the girl really sick??? Is misery a sickness?, left un treated it can certainly become or develop into it. Do the have nots not deserve to be cheerful too. Strange that when most haves visit the have nots the most usual comment is " i can't get over how cheerful they all are. " Particularly liked the comment re perhaps not being a mother or father being an option, is parenthood the biggest ego trip of them all? What about here in the West were poor people are literally paid to reproduce in numbers despite in many cases being unable to provide a what we now know to be a healthy growth environment for children? What are the most basic physical and emotional needs and doesn't every single human being have a most basic right to them especially in a world governed by people paid to take care of management of such things. Not to mention the physical and emotional needs of our flora fauna and planet dare I say herself... Lol don't tell me plants and animals don't have feelings too... Jolly big re shuffle n re think needed, n so far down the wrong track will we ever manage to change course without a wipeout, especially since them that's paid to manage will have to have meetings and produce reports bla bla before every making a step in the right direction or laying a hand to help... Cheerfully... Let's do another live aid n have a party for the poor and not invite them of course... God or something help us all...