The Curse of Anti-Life Ideology
On May 17, a young man, whom no one seemed to actually know, died in the explosion of a massive bomb outside a California IVF clinic in what authorities describe as an a deliberate act of terrorism. A manifesto that he left behind suggests that he intended to take his own life, and indeed that he believed that his own life and the lives of everyone else were in some way “destructive.” It is logical that he would attempt to blow up a clinic that participated in the creation of new life.
This story might seem unimportant if the young man had acted on a whim or if he were insane, but the fact is that he acted quite rationally, however misguidedly, following years of ideological training and reflection. Twenty-five-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus was not insane; if anything, he was too rational, too consumed by ideas, too disconnected from society and from his physical nature. Like Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Bartkus was apparently isolated and obsessed by ideology, in his case by pro-mortalist ideas — the belief, according to NewsNation, that “it’s better to die than to continue existing and that it’s wrong to bring new sentient life into the world.”
Bartkus’s “crime” was that he was so overwhelmed by the sense that human beings in general, and himself in particular, are a damaging to existence that new birth needs to be stopped and existing humans eliminated. His “punishment” was the self-inflected death via an explosive device so powerful that his body parts were scattered on the street far from where the bomb was set off.
If the Bartkus case were an isolated incident, there would be little more to say. The problem is that it was not. Bartkus’s female friend, Sophie Tinney, was killed, reportedly at her own request, back in April, and the death may have spurred Bartkus’s plan of action. Bartkus is also said to have been in touch with and written on internet sites devoted to the same anti-life propositions.
At first blush, some readers may connect Bartkus’s attack on a fertility clinic with what they view as “similar” attacks by pro-lifers on abortion facilities. No comparison could be more inappropriate. Bartkus’s motives and those of the anti-life websites he seems to have visited are the opposite of pro-life groups, who wish to preserve life instead of destroying it.
It’s important to understand just how radical today’s anti-life movement has become. According to fastslang.com,
at its core, Anti Life is a rejection of life itself. Its adherents believe that existence is inherently painful and pointless, and that the only way to escape this suffering is through self-destruction. They see death not as an end, but as a release from the chains of existence, and actively seek out ways to hasten their own demise.
Anti-lifers are by nature nihilistic and often engage in violence, sabotage, or terrorism, including anti-government and anti-authority actions similar to what Bartkus engaged in. According to reports, “despite its extremist views, Anti Life has attracted a growing number of followers in recent years. Some see it as a way to rebel against a society they feel has failed them, while others are drawn to its nihilistic and anarchic worldview.”
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