POPULATION MATTERS; SELF-CONTROL MATTERS MORE

I have just been given a copy of Population Matters Magazine. This is a very well-produced, well-written bi-annual compendium of news, opinions and commentary focusing on the impact of human reproduction on nature and on humanity itself. The possibility of a saving grace is offered as 'a sustainable future.' I am impressed by the quality and sincerity of Population Matters Magazine, but it is appealing to people's common sense or reason, which is but a very exiguous veneer of civilization. Humanity is only very slightly reasonable and such logic as is available to humans readily gives way to violence; furthermore it is completely overcome by the reproductive urge. There does exist a level of greater awareness and intelligence in society which is well aware of our increasingly desperate state of affairs, but feels helpless in the face of the overwhelming ignorance evinced by the population at large: birth is still officially encouraged by government and many parents are proud of having inordinately big families—thanks largely to the welfare system—in complete unashamed denial of the said state of affairs. I repeat here that only acknowledgment per se, that does not first beg for a solution, has any power to effect change in the onrush of human consumption and self-destruction.

If, as seems to be the case, humankind is unable to come to international accord and exercise self-control, then the necessary culling will inevitably come about in other ways and will cause truly immense suffering. If the huge inventory of deadly diseases can't do the job thoroughly enough, then warfare will try its hand: already the nations of Europe are trying to see what they can do to postpone the next world war. It looks very much as if this next war has already been started, and by Russia, which justifies its every act of criminal violence by blaming 'the West,' the USA in particular. Russia has for a very long time cut itself off from civilization and like Islamic fanaticism is presently showing itself to be not just a society ruled by criminals ('a mafia state') but by violent psychopaths. It is no use trying to placate rash Putin. The so-called 'West' was helpless when he seized Crimea and—except for some alert individuals—it prefers to ignore the threat and get on with its habits of limitless consumption instead of taking firm action against the expansion of the aggressor. If this war gets going, it is obvious there will be destruction and death on a vastly greater scale than in the previous two bouts of savagery. This is the history of the human race: will ignorance prove to be its nemesis?