Everything That Can Be Done, Is Being Done

Population:
Everything That Can Be Done, Is Being Done.

If there are more humans on earth than the earth can support:

What can be done?

In order of increasing loss of individual freedom:

1. Propaganda: Inform the populace of the problem, the potential for disaster, and possible solutions.

In progress at this moment and from the time of Malthus.

2. Increase the power of women, since if they can choose, they will choose to be pregnant less.

In progress at this moment and, depending on how you date it, from the time of Jesus.

3. Demonstrate with pornography that sex can be disconnected from procreation.

In progress since the mid twentieth century.

4. Devise methods of interdicting sperm.

In progress. Every possible method has been investigated and when successful tried out on a large scale since mid twentieth century.

5. Voluntary abortions.

In progress since mid twentieth century. Successful, though with significant resistance for religious reasons. Also may increase pregnancies.

6. Sterilization of unfit parents who demonstrate a willingness to have children.

Politically difficult or impossible except in societies with authoritarian governments.

Discussed but not tried except on a very limited scale.

7. General limits on the entire population with abortion used to terminate unauthorized pregnancies.

Politically difficult or impossible except in societies with authoritarian governments.

Being attempted in China since late twentieth century with mixed results.

8. Birth permits with abortion used to terminate unauthorized pregnancies.

Untried.

So, this is an unusual and, in some ways, an unprecedented problem for consciousness. That is, the problem exists, from the fact that it is being dealt with, but is not generally acknowledged due to the apparent conflict between the existence of the problem and the general world view of humans. That is, the Judeo/Christian tradition idealizes life and promotes propagation. In addition, by and large, other motivations, like women's rights are cited as the reason for the measures taken. This is not completely true, in China for instance.

Humans have experienced overpopulation in the past, and found ways to deal with it, as in the case of immigration to the Americas. This time, however, no readily available solution is apparent, so an incremental approach is being taken with ever more stringent methods being used as time goes on, the problem worsens, and no comprehensive solution comes into sight.

This problem also has the feature that the effects are, in many cases, difficult to connect causally to the problem. As, for instance, in the cases of increasing illicit drug use, random violence, and child crime.

Feminism is being used as a Trojan Horse here because many if not most people have trouble believing there is a problem and if they do accept there is one, think of it as being somewhere else, like China, or India. Women, on the other hand, easily accept that they are being discriminated against unfairly, even if they cannot identify it in their own lives. So, to some extent discrimination is more real, while overpopulation remains abstract. None the less, if it is true that we are misleading ourselves, this will certainly lead to more problems. For instance, citing feminine freedom as the motive for abortion will induce a conservative religious reaction while the truth might not. But, if most cannot believe in the truth, then this sort of deviousness is the only available method.

Another interesting question here is who is responsible for this deceit? Several institutions are generally or very aware of the problem. The UN, the WorldWatch Institute, the Erlichs and their institute at Stanford, ZPG, and a few private individuals who write on the subject. No doubt many others who are watching quietly. I find nobody to pin it on. Therefore, perhaps some other mechanism is at work? Perhaps we are just seeing unconscious decisions on a wide scale having their effect. By that I mean many individuals saying to themselves, "Overpopulation, well...maybe, I don't want to have many children anyway, so, I'll say it's my feminist right to choose. I'd rather have a career, plenty of money, a nice house, than a lot of squalling kids underfoot and no time for myself."

That is to say, it is the sum of lots of individual choices that produces the apparent deceit here. Another possibility is, of course, that the goals of feminism and population control just happen to coincide. This is not compelling to me, as in the case of the tobacco war, the published reasons for it don't add up to the energy being put in.

So, how could the tobacco war be explained as a response to overpopulation? As follows: tobacco is a masculine drug, by which it is meant that it supports a masculine value, it enhances concentration. Therefore, to increase the commitment to feminist values, reduce smoking. Increasing feminist commitment will, by increasing freedom of choice for women, reduce pregnancies, either by sperm interdiction or abortion.

Finally, if the problem is being dealt with, why bother to think about it? Well, those of us doing so, and writing about it, are performing the work required by point 1. Beyond that, it is possible that the measures being taken will prove inadequate, so some thinking about possible disaster scenarios seems to be in order.