Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so by a biological act.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Mumford suggests that having children can be a desperate biological protest against perceived threats of extermination or political despair.
- In plain terms
- People have kids as a sign of hope when politics fails.
- What can you take from it?
- Birth can be a biological response to political hopelessness.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is having children a political act?
- How does despair affect family planning?
Another view
Not all births are motivated by political protest.
More from Lewis Mumford
Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.
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