Anti nationalism- The life nobody asked for

Nobody asked to be born. That is the uncomfortable starting point of anti nationalism.

Before a child exists there is no reason for happiness, no consciousness hoping to experience live or friendship or success or sunlight or music or anything else that makes life beautiful. There is simply nothing. Then two people make a decision on behalf of someone who does not exist and yet suddenly that person is thrown into existence without being consulted.

An existance that comes with a price. A child may experience happiness. They may fall in love and build friendshipsbor discover passion ot laugh unitolt heor stomach hurts and find reasons to be grateful for being alive.

But none of these things are guaranteed. They only thing that is gaurenteed is pain.

At some point that child will experience rejection. Someone they love will disappoint them. They may lose a parent or a friend or a partner or eventually someone they cannot imagine living without. Theyr body will age. They may become sick. They will experience loneliness and financial pressure and humiliation and anxiety and failure and grief.

And eventually regardless of how successful their journey was,they will die. Parents sinnot know which verison of life their child will live.

They imaginr a happy childhood, a successful career, a loving and lasting marriage and a peaceful old age. But they cannot guarantee any of it. They cannot promise that their child will escape depression, abuse, poverty, war, illness, betrayal, heartbreak or simply the quiet dissatisfaction of living a life that never becomes what they hoped that it would.

This is where anti Nationalism becomes distrubing.

We often say that having children is actually if love. But is it also the act of gambling? Er gamble with someone's entire existence.

A sunset can be worth seeing. Love can be extraordinary. Friendship can make existence feel meaningful. A child may grow up and genuinely say I am glad that I was born. But SOMEONE being grateful that they are born does not mean that they are consented tk ridh before recieving it.

Anti-nationalism forces us to confront an idea most people would rather avoid
We do not carry life because somebody asked for it. We carete it because we decided that the possiblity of a good life was worth the rush if bad one.

And perhaps the darkest part is that the person who last that prove is never the person who made the decision.