~ The Meaning of Life ~

[Hobbes' Choice]

Because it happens in the majority of cases. Because it's happened 108 billion times since man's been around. Because the population has more than doubled since I've been here. So yeah, it's literally that fucking easy.

If you were in your teens or twenties and in a non-industrialised country then maybe but over that and in the industrialised 'West' then not so easy. Take a look at the fertility stats in those nations.

20% of Westerners are not having children. That's an astonishing amount. Hence the low stats.

Actually birth rates are falling the world over. This has been the result of modernisation and more importantly given women power over their fertility. Men have always been a bit fuck and forget, but the woman have to carry the burden for at least 12 more years.
But whilst rates are falling, populations are still getting bigger and the world's resources are getting squeezed more and more tightly. This, in combination with an ageing population unable to work but still in pursuit of resources is going to be a massive problem as the economies are geared to see 'growth' as success and stasis as failure.
The shit storm is going to hit hard in the next twenty to thirty years, and no amount of pension allowance is going to help because you can only effectively draw against the contemporary economy, not the economy of the past.

[Dalek Prime]

Wrong thread. *shrug*

[Dubious]

The Meaning of Life is to make believe you actually like it here, ever ready to accept the thesis that life is not a tale told by an idiot which only proves you really are one.

[Obvious Leo]

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth (Act V Scene V).

I don't buy it myself but Billy the Shake was convinced of it. He also had this to say.

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”....

As You Like It (Act II Scene VII)

I like this version better. It means you're the principle character in your very own soap opera but it also means that there's no rehearsal. You only get one crack at it so try not to fluff your lines.

[Dubious]

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth (Act V Scene V).

I don't buy it myself but Billy the Shake was convinced of it. He also had this to say.

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”....

As You Like It (Act II Scene VII)

I like this version better. It means you're the principle character in your very own soap opera but it also means that there's no rehearsal. You only get one crack at it so try not to fluff your lines.

The Macbeth quote is a later and more refined commentary on the earlier As You like it one since Shake discovered we never get to do it as we'd like it in the first place.

I'll stick with Macbeth. Truer lines have never been written or spoken.

[Obvious Leo]

Nice to know that Shakespeare admirers are not yet an extinct species, Dubious.

[Hobbes' Choice]

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth (Act V Scene V).

I don't buy it myself but Billy the Shake was convinced of it. He also had this to say.

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”....

As You Like It (Act II Scene VII)

I like this version better. It means you're the principle character in your very own soap opera but it also means that there's no rehearsal. You only get one crack at it so try not to fluff your lines.

The great thing about writing plays is that you can be diverse opinions into the mouth of different characters without people 500 years in the future being able to say whether of not you are 'convinced of it' one way or the other.
It's called 'theatre' darling!

[Dalek Prime]

The Meaning of Life is to make believe you actually like it here, ever ready to accept the thesis that life is not a tale told by an idiot which only proves you really are one.

Nice.

[Arising_uk]

20% of Westerners are not having children. That's an astonishing amount. Hence the low stats.

Sorry, I was talking about male fertility not reproduction, look at the sperm counts in the Western nations. Dropping fast.

[Dalek Prime]

20% of Westerners are not having children. That's an astonishing amount. Hence the low stats.

Sorry, I was talking about male fertility not reproduction, look at the sperm counts in the Western nations. Dropping fast.

Phytohormones from plastics, perhaps? Who knows. What studies show this, anyways? Not that it would surprise, given what I said.

[Hobbes' Choice]

20% of Westerners are not having children. That's an astonishing amount. Hence the low stats.

Sorry, I was talking about male fertility not reproduction, look at the sperm counts in the Western nations. Dropping fast.

Phytohormones from plastics, perhaps? Who knows. What studies show this, anyways? Not that it would surprise, given what I said.

It's almost completely irrelevant to the issue of birth rate.
It's about personal choice, NOT sperm counts. If a person with a low sperm count wants a child he can have one.

[Dalek Prime]

I suppose so. Seemed to work for you.

[Hobbes' Choice]

I suppose so. Seemed to work for you.

Case in point;" You talk bollocks about stuff about which you know nothing."

[Arising_uk]

It's about personal choice, NOT sperm counts. If a person with a low sperm count wants a child he can have one.

With expensive help sure.

[Dubious]

With expensive help sure.

That's like spending money on a kid before he's born. When finally the prepaid version arrives, like a box of chocolates, you're not sure of what you got.