Malthusianism

Malthusianism is an ideology that claims that the exponential growth of the human population will lead to economic collapse. The idea comes from Thomas Robert Malthus who was hired by the British Royal Family to falsely claim that the causes of the French Revolution was due to population growth, rather than class conflict.

This ideology has become the basis of the degrowth movement and climate activists, who receive enormous funding from the ruling elites.

In contrast to Malthusianism, pro-growth Marxists (such as Deng Xiaoping) propose that humanity is not constrained in the same way as animals are when it comes to their population growth. Lyndon LaRocuhe expresses this ability to increase the human population with technology as the "Potential Relative Population Density."

Marx and Engels were major critics of Malthusian population theory. Marx characterised Malthus' Essay on Population as "nothing more than a schoolboyish, superficial plagiary of De Foe, Sir James Steuart, Townsend, Franklin, Wallace, &c., [it] does not contain a single sentence thought out by himself." Though they accepted natural selection and other elements of Darwinism, they rejected the influence Malthus had on both The Origin of Species and Darwin's work in general.

Engels wrote in 1843:

Malthus establishes a formula on which he bases his entire system: population is said to increase in a geometrical progression – 1+2+4+8+16+32, etc.; the productive power of the land in an arithmetical progression – 1+2+3+4+5+6. The difference is obvious, is terrifying; but is it correct? Where has it been proved that the productivity of the land increases in an arithmetical progression? The extent of land is limited. All right! The labour-power to be employed on this land-surface increases with population. Even if we assume that the increase in yield due to increase in labour does not always rise in proportion to the labour, there still remains a third element which, admittedly, never means anything to the economist – science – whose progress is as unlimited and at least as rapid as that of population. What progress does the agriculture of this century owe to chemistry alone – indeed, to two men alone, Sir Humphry Davy and Justus Liebig! But science increases at least as much as population.

This split later became a sharpened contradiction with the rise of Mendelism-Morganism, which was viscerally critiqued by Trofim Lysenko, the infamous Soviet agronomist. While the Mendelist-Morganists promoted Metaphysical concepts such as genes and random mutation from their sterilized, controlled, cobweb-ridden laboratories, Lysenko experimented in the fields barefoot with Soviet farmers and used Dialectical Materialism as the basis of his scientific method. Lysenko, his colleagues, and their teacher (the agronomist I.V. Michurin) arguably synthesized what is now commonly accepted as epigenetics.

Fox Green of the Space Commune has made a documentary called "Consumerism: Can we buy a better world?" which offers a critique of degrowth and Malthusianism.

Elite Malthusian agenda

Along with statements in newspapers, books, and interviews from elites associated with Malthusian organizations like the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Planned Parenthood, etc., etc., we now have a number of documents that have come to light since the 70s showing that the elites have long sought to lower the birth rate and the population, both of America and the world in general, and how they sought to do so.

1969 Planned Parenthood "Jaffe memo"

Summary included in the memo of anti-natalist proposals

Frederick S. Jaffe was associated with the eugenicist, anti-black organization Planned Parenthood from 1954 to 1974 and was Vice President for much of that time. In 1969 he sent a memo to Bernard Berelson, head of the Rockefeller-funded Population Council, proposing that the potential effectiveness of a number of plans to reduce the population growth to 0% be studied. He and his fellow Malthusians wanted to reduce America's population growth both for "ecological" reasons, and because he thought it was necessary to do so, so that the government could "compel" developing nations to do the same, although he recognized the first was easier to practically advocate for. He proposed that first off, the effectiveness of on-demand abortion and contraception be studied and what kind of legal, political, etc. changes would need to be made to provide these. If abortion and contraception alone wouldn't reduce the population growth rate, he proposed that a number of other policies be studied, like:

1. Whether welfare and free social services are pro or anti natalist, and what changes would need to be made accordingly
2. What kind of economic policies would be needed to increase women's employment & thus lower fertility
3. "The effect on fertility of policies to encourage higher educational levels for everyone", and the current and potential effects on fertility of policies and programs regarding the education of women
4. Whether or not the U.S farm policy "of encouraging the amalgamation of family farms into 'agrobusinesses'" has been effective (and if not, what farm policies could be adopted to destroy family farms, and by implication lower fertility by causing rural-urban migration)
5. If home ownership causes higher fertility, and if so, how it could be discouraged
6. How to convince business leaders that lower fertility wouldn't harm their bottom line

He then summed up a number of policies that had been proposed by others, which can be seen in the image to the right, in terms of how applicable they were, and proposed studying (and implementing) these too. Most frightening are "Encourage increased homosexuality" and "Fertility control agents in water supply". The fact that Malthusians had it in mind to encourage homosexuality is interesting in light of the Kissinger Report, as it sheds light on why the U.S encourages the LGBT movement worldwide. While there are many reasons, like reenforcing U.S cultural norms, lowering fertility (and thus the threat to unipolarity) must be one of them.

Deboonkers like to point out that he was only proposing that a number of studies be conducted and summing up proposals made by others, but this doesn't actually matter much. His agenda was clearly to "identify some points for intervention to encourage lower fertility without the adoption of an explicit population policy.", and then to work towards enacting these, and the memo clearly lays out what sorts of plans the Malthusians have adopted.

World Bank policies

Malthusianism has long been on the World Bank's agenda. In 1969, Robert McNamara (yes, that McNamara), then president of the World Bank, gave a speech where he laid out population control as a new focus for the Bank. This led to their pushing Malthusian depopulation on members of the WB. In another speech, he called population growth

a problem that arose out of that recent past; that already plagues man in the present; and that will diminish, if not destroy, much of his futureshould he fail to face up to it, and solve it. It is, by half a dozen criteria, the most delicate and difficult issue of our era-perhaps of any era in history.

In 1972 the World Bank published a report bragging about their "efforts to help member countries reduce population growth rates" which also "[set] out its future program of activity in the field, as now envisaged". The document noted that while there had been "progress" in pushing "family planning" - contraception and abortion - they still encountered religious, cultural, and political opposition, and thus they needed to focus harder on brainwashing the youth into their Malthusian cult.

Family planning programs normally include education and information components, although the exact type of activities carried out must be carefully tailored to allow for cultural sensitivities and religious beliefs. Education consists of the preparation of curriculum materials on family life and sex and their introduction into school curricula after suitable testing and training of teachers. The target group is principally the next generation of potential acceptors. Information, or communication, activities are directed mainly to the present generation of potential acceptors. These may be reached through various forms of mass communication (radio, cinema, newspapers, posters, etc.), as well as through face-to-face contacts established by health personnel, social workers, or specially trained field workers. The education and information components are vital parts of any well conceived family planning program.

The report then called for increased study about and funding for anti-fertility programs. The most concerning speech McNamara gave was in 1977 where he repeated the idea that "Short of thermonuclear war itself, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces over the decades immediately ahead..." He then called on governments to take action to stop population growth with the following policies, many similar to ideas laid out in Jaffe's memo above:

• Reduce current infant and child mortality rates sharply.
• Expand basic education and substantially increase the proportion of girls in school.
• Increase the productivity of smallholders in the rural areas, and expand earning opportunities in the cities for low-income groups.
• Put greater stress on more equitable distribution of income and services in the drive for greater economic growth.
• And, above all else, raise the status of women socially, economically, and politically.
• Provide a broad choice of the present contraceptive techniques and services to parents.
• Improve the delivery systems by which parents can get the services they wish.

1974 "Kissinger Report"

While Planned Parenthood's agenda of eugenics and genocide was chilling in itself, this Malthusianism in general takes on a whole new light when we look at this report, which clearly lays out "population control" as a tool of the American elites to maintain control over the globe. In 1974, President Nixon ordered war criminal Henry Kissinger and the NSC to undertake a study on the "implications of worldwide population growth for U.S. security and national interests", specifically on the international political and economic implications rather than its ecological, etc. implications. It was finished later in 1974, and was then adopted in a modified form as policy under President Ford.

The report first establishes a relation between population growth and "instability" in a country. By "instability" the report, in reality, mostly means an unfavorable environment for U.S. business interests, and people of the country growing tired of having their natural and human resources exploited by multinational corporations while their needs are barely met:

The important potential linkage between rapid population growth and minerals availability is indirect rather than direct. It flows from the negative effects of excessive population growth in economic development and social progress, and therefore on internal stability, in overcrowded under-developed countries. The United States has become increasingly dependent on mineral imports from developing countries in recent decades, and this trend is likely to continue. The location of known reserves of higher-grade ores of most minerals favors increasing dependence of all industrialized regions on imports from less developed countries. The real problems of mineral supplies lie, not in basic physical sufficiency, but in the politico-economic issues of access, terms for exploration and exploitation, and division of the benefits among producers, consumers, and host country governments.

In the extreme cases where population pressures lead to endemic famine, food riots, and breakdown of social order, those conditions are scarcely conducive to systematic exploration for mineral deposits or the long-term investments required for their exploitation. Short of famine, unless some minimum of popular aspirations for material improvement can be satisfied, and unless the terms of access and exploitation persuade governments and peoples that this aspect of the international economic order has "something in it for them," concessions to foreign companies are likely to be expropriated or subjected to arbitrary intervention. Whether through government action, labor conflicts, sabotage, or civil disturbance, the smooth flow of needed materials will be jeopardized. Although population pressure is obviously not the only factor involved, these types of frustrations are much less likely under conditions of slow or zero population growth.

...Whatever may be done to guard against interruptions of supply and to develop domestic alternatives, the U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries. That fact gives the U.S. enhanced interest in the political, economic, and social stability of the supplying countries. Wherever a lessening of population pressures through reduced birth rates can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resource supplies and to the economic interests of the United States.

The young people, who are in much higher proportions in many LDCs, are likely to be more volatile, unstable, prone to extremes, alienation and violence than an older population. These young people can more readily be persuaded to attack the legal institutions of the government or real property of the "establishment," "imperialists," multinational corporations, or other -- often foreign -- influences blamed for their troubles.

It then lays out how the U.S. government could push for lower population growth in these countries. Some of the most concerning strategies recommended are "Concentrating on the education and indoctrination of the rising generation of children regarding the desirability of smaller family size.", especially girls and women, making access to contraception and abortion easier for all, stating that "No country has reduced its population growth without resorting to abortion.", and utilizing mass media to push "family planning" propaganda.

Attack on natalist Catholicism and other Christian groups

The Malthusian elites also attacked the pre-V2 Catholic Church for its natalist policy, with elite anti-Catholicism playing into this. Notable examples are John D. Rockefeller III (who basically funded every single Malthusian organization) and Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) who both hated Catholics and how many kids they had. They relented after a brief intermission where it seemed possible the Church would support abortion and contraception like mainline Protestant churches had begun to, but ramped up the attack again after Humanae Vitae was issued in 1968, a repudiation of the elite Malthusian agenda. Since then, they've tried to infiltrate the Church and spread their ideas through liberal "Catholicism".

See also

• Club of Rome