A couple of weeks ago I asked is it time we stopped certain people breeding. Although my post in no way suggested selective breeding to eliminate certain races, people of low intelligence or those with physical defects, as anticipated a couple of people of the type that either comment withourt reading or read without understanding, accused me of advocating eugenics.
Well I am not the only liberal intellectual who is prepared to face up to the fact that one of the great causes of environmental deterioration is that their are just too many people. We have to reverse population growth. Not eugenics, that is something completely different, not fascism – again different, but simple common sense. If people show they are not prepared to reproduce responsibly they must be stopped from reproducing. Even if we abolish religion now, it will take a generation for education to do the job so drastic action is needed.
Read Madeline Bunting’s article in the Guardian and consider the consequences of allowing people to breed indiscriminately.
Little Nicky Machiavelli 
Slight aside: Reproduce-Responsibly-Catholic….mmmmmmmm?
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No prob. I just asked my wife why she allowed me to have a vasectomy after our second and she said, “you prods don’t think we believe all that Vatican crap do you?”
(Actually she has been saying that for thirty years.)
The contraception issue is largely responsible for the decline of the Catholic Church so they must decide to modernise or become defunct. A bit of political pressure might help them.
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Its the Chinese and the Indians that are the problem mate, not the catholics. I&C have between them, 33%+ of the worlds population. Then the Russians and Yanks… about 450m between them. Indonesia over 100m
But really, it’s not the poplation thats the problem, its actually the way sections of the population use natural resources and un-natural lives.
I would say stopping people breeding is fascism – sorry Ian as it’s probably an ultimate expression of the states control over the individual.
Dumbos do not necessarily have dumbo children, and dumbos have the potential to be great minds – its really a question of maturity. I did some dumbass things as a ‘lad’, things that make me wince now but now, I like to think (hope I’m not kidding myself here) that I’ve entered into the cognitive intelligencia.
You might have given me the snip some 20 years ago or what have you 😦
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It was someone else who mentioned Catholics. My wife’s point, coz she knows about being a Catholic, is the church can say what it likes, nobody has to take any notice.
When we were lads (somewhat more than twenty years ago in my case) we all ran round with our knobs out. But many whose carelesness caught them out were responsible enough to do the right thing and also to learn from their mistakes.
We have 60 million in Britain and are over – populated by about 20%. To become self sufficient in food production we would have to increase our reliance on intensive farming methods – which of course damage the environment so this would impact our ability to produce adequate food in future.
So reproduction, as Madeline Bunting says, has to be limited to replacing ourselves. That is not fascism, its logic.
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I’ve come across this discussion before. It is a subject with a serious content that deserves less emotive titling or headlines than it gets (not saying you have done such, it has been titled thus in many forms by the media to sell their wares)because it is worth discussing in rational terms, which I think you are proposing.
I haven’t followed your links.
Birth rate figures in Western Europe indicate low birth rates based on the figures of production of previous generations. Demographics in this region have changed, (we’re not even reproducing a status quo) and with it have come social crises. Quo vadis?
When it comes to other continents, the discussion requires another slant, one which can be addressed by those who may benefit from changes to their societies.
In previous times, wars reduced populations, I would not wish to advocate that as an answer in any shape or form, nor the ravages of ill health. Health problems currently pertain and they will, to a point self-select the fittest if neglect is allowed to predominate.
This is a very difficult and vexatious topic, one with which you’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
There is always manipulation in these arguments about which we must remain vigilant.
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Thanks for that very considered comment.
The problem with the net is if a restrained and intelligent title is chosen the post tends not to get read by very many people. If a sensationalist title is chosen there will always be people who read the title and first paragraph and comment on that.
So what do we do? Well I go for traffic grabbing because that helps the bigger plan which is to put online a site that offers quality content rather than interactive dross. We will have a different approach there.
best
Ian
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