RE: Population control
April 10, 2020 at 6:47 am
(This post was last modified: April 10, 2020 at 7:26 am by The Grand Nudger.)
In the US, at least, people have as many children as they want. Not more children than they want, or less. We reproduce below the replacement rate.
It's a common feature of developed countries with (comparitively) wealthy citizens. If there's a mindset we need to change, it probably doesn't have anything to do with breeding. What people believe to be the effect of overpopulation is, in point of fact, the effect of induced poverty amid a world of plenty. This imposition of poverty has always come with a complimentary insistence that our mindless human cattle breed too much and are, therefore, the cause of their own misery.
We aren't living in a world of resource scarcity - there's nothing to strain. It probably would have been easier to make the case in the 18th century, directly before the industrial revolution.
Obviously, someone did - and got it completely wrong - but here we are in 2020, still entertaining the musings of the colonial elite.
Personally, I think that we do this for a number of reasons, many of which boil down to being uncomfortable with change to the point of insisting on what we already believe no matter how discredited it is, and the urge to externalize blame. It's not so much that an individual is explicitly drawing from the well of deep misgiving and cruelty toward man that these notions are born from - but that this has become so deeply ingrained and sanitized in our culture that it exists as a free hanging proposition.
A truth in search of demonstration, and finding it from one generation to the next regardless of where that demonstration is asserted. An idea so intuitively true and satisfying that no matter how many times it turns out to be wrong, we fly off to find another reason to insist that it's right.
It's a common feature of developed countries with (comparitively) wealthy citizens. If there's a mindset we need to change, it probably doesn't have anything to do with breeding. What people believe to be the effect of overpopulation is, in point of fact, the effect of induced poverty amid a world of plenty. This imposition of poverty has always come with a complimentary insistence that our mindless human cattle breed too much and are, therefore, the cause of their own misery.
(April 9, 2020 at 5:32 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: In 1790, the world population was about one thousand million people. Having 2 or 3 children now strains resources far more the surviving 3 or 4 did in the 18th century.
Boru
We aren't living in a world of resource scarcity - there's nothing to strain. It probably would have been easier to make the case in the 18th century, directly before the industrial revolution.
Obviously, someone did - and got it completely wrong - but here we are in 2020, still entertaining the musings of the colonial elite.
Personally, I think that we do this for a number of reasons, many of which boil down to being uncomfortable with change to the point of insisting on what we already believe no matter how discredited it is, and the urge to externalize blame. It's not so much that an individual is explicitly drawing from the well of deep misgiving and cruelty toward man that these notions are born from - but that this has become so deeply ingrained and sanitized in our culture that it exists as a free hanging proposition.
A truth in search of demonstration, and finding it from one generation to the next regardless of where that demonstration is asserted. An idea so intuitively true and satisfying that no matter how many times it turns out to be wrong, we fly off to find another reason to insist that it's right.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
