RAH - The madness that opposes natural population decline

Britain's (and Europe's) native population is declining naturally, which is a godsend, given the degree of overpopulation, certainly in western Europe, and the fact that there is no longer anywhere for Europe's excess population to emigrate to.

So what do we do? Do we celebrate this natural development and give thanks to Providence for it? Far from it. Instead, we worry about the fiscal and economic consequences of a declining population, encourage people to have more children and invite millions of immigrants to come and live here, in our still natively overpopulated country!

Never mind the developing world. It is the dumb, blind stupidity of us in the so-called "developed world" which is the MAIN problem.

Overpopulation in our part of the world was solving itself quite naturally, until politicians, economists etc. decided to intervene. Why? Because an aging and declining population does not fit into their socio-economic models of the world, which require a stable or growing population, continuous economic growth and the assumption that our planet, effectively at least (thanks, we assure ourselves, to our scientific and technological genius), has an infinite supply of natural resources and an infinite carrying capacity.

What is the cause of the blindness that gives rise to such madness?

Here, yet again, is my anthropological explanation:

Human emotions and behaviour evolved over millions of years to serve the individual and their family group in the struggle for survival and advantage in the "natural environment". With the advent of civilisation, the individual's blind, dumb-animal, Darwinian struggle transferred to the artificial, "socio-economic environment", where, naturally enough, and greatly facilitated by the development of free-market capitalism, we give absolute priority to economics (the household of man in the artificial, "socio-economic environment"), rather than to ecology (the household of our planet in the natural environment).

Once you recognise this, it's obvious.

It is also very frightening - recognizing the inherent non-sustainability of the existing socio-economic order of the so-called "developed world".

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org

To: Guardian CiF Re: The madness that opposes natural population decline Date: Monday 19 March 07

In response to the Guardian article, "No one is willing to address the accelerating growth in the world's population" by Juliette Jowit. Link to article and thread at The Guardian. Britain's (and Europe's) native population is declining naturally, which is a godsend, given the degree of overpopulation, certainly in western Europe, and the fact that there is no longer anywhere for Europe's excess population to emigrate to. So what do we do? Do we celebrate this natural development and give thanks to Providence for it? Far from it. Instead, we worry about the fiscal and economic consequences of a declining population, encourage people to have more children and invite millions of immigrants to come and live here, in our still natively overpopulated country! Never mind the developing world. It is the dumb, blind stupidity of us in the so-called "developed world" which is the MAIN problem. Overpopulation in our part of the world was solving itself quite naturally, until politicians, economists etc. decided to intervene. Why? Because an aging and declining population does not fit into their socio-economic models of the world, which require a stable or growing population, continuous economic growth and the assumption that our planet, effectively at least (thanks, we assure ourselves, to our scientific and technological genius), has an infinite supply of natural resources and an infinite carrying capacity. What is the cause of the blindness that gives rise to such madness? Here, yet again, is my anthropological explanation: Human emotions and behaviour evolved over millions of years to serve the individual and their family group in the struggle for survival and advantage in the "natural environment". With the advent of civilisation, the individual's blind, dumb-animal, Darwinian struggle transferred to the artificial, "socio-economic environment", where, naturally enough, and greatly facilitated by the development of free-market capitalism, we give absolute priority to economics (the household of man in the artificial, "socio-economic environment"), rather than to ecology (the household of our planet in the natural environment). Once you recognise this, it's obvious. It is also very frightening - recognizing the inherent non-sustainability of the existing socio-economic order of the so-called "developed world". My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org