Why Should We Care About Posterity

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Thinking about the safety of future generations is an idea that many have dwelled on. Posterity is an important notion with much dispute over what we all should do. Questions are raised such as, why should we worry about the future if we’re not going to be alive then? Or even, do I want the human race to continue? These are crucial questions to be asked, thought about, and to be debated. What people need to do is put themselves in another position. What if they were from the future, looking back at those who asked these questions. If it were me, I would like the general population to have thought it would be best to take care of the earth in order to provide future generations with the best lives possible. There are endless possibilities of how the earth will change throughout the years whether or not it is taken care of. However, I’d like to think that taking precautions and applying solutions to harmful problems would only benefit our future generations. Author Robert Heilbroner looks at this subject from the same type of viewpoint. He is outraged by several responses that look in the other direction of posterity. For example, the author looks at the opinion of a professor from the University of London who proclaims that the future might not be better off and who are we to decide? Heilbroner indicates that this is an unhinged way to approach this debate. He hopes for a survivalist ethic in all future generations, wanting them all to question and respect the safety and wellbeing of the future. To give a full meaning to his opinion, he states in the article, “imagine ourselves as the executioners of mankind so that we truly take in how our actions now will affect the future.” Do we want to be the executioners? I would not want to leave this world knowing that I helped end the human race rather than helped preserve it. In the article, Who Cares for
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