Overpopulation is the Problem

WG to Professor Jack Bennett & Fred Powledge 10 March 2007
Subject: Overpopulation is the Problem - in the US Journal Bioscience Feb 2007
That overpopulation is humankind’s greatest problem today must be obvious to all but the most defiantly ignorant. The inability to acknowledge it fully and completely and to remain ‘in denial,’ is attributable to a taboo surrounding the future-dreaming of the ravenous womb. Equally accountable, though, is the pusillanimity of the male, the ‘wee, timorous beastie,’ too timid to ‘bell the cat;’ his sense of self is all too liable to atrophy if he has to face life alone, a likely outcome should he renege on what is at its core the son’s pledge to return to the mother. Humanity therefore never matures beyond nursery-centred dreams, devastating the habitat as it proceeds, as is at last becoming widely known. Dramatic no doubt, but be it acknowledged that the shiny drama of sex in the movement towards copulation is at the overheated heart of society; everyone is encouraged to dwell on it, even into advanced old age. Money circulates because of it and it is felt to be the ultimate fount of joy, exciting beyond words. Where or indeed what, if anything, would we all be without it?

Since the habitable surface area of the earth does not conveniently enlarge to accommodate the excesses of human loving, this pseudo-species of ours, undeniably the most intelligent creature ever to strut the earth, yet lacking the now urgently necessary self-control, is creating a future of catastrophic culling in the various well-publicized forms such as epidemic disease, climatic disaster and mass murder. So much for the sentimental dreams of romance conditioning! Since all of this is only too well known to us all, though it may be ignored or even scoffed at by many or by most, and given the plain unattractiveness of celibacy, how do we move from here?

What seems to be trying to suggest itself, and being consistently rejected over the centuries, is a further mutation, from the state of pseudo-species to a complete acknowledgement of the non-metaphysical and absolutely straightforward nature of reality. Rather too simple for science or religion, this. Enthusiasm for such investigation quickly sours, owing to a preference for suffering out our dreams, whether we have secured comfortable positions in society or are struggling to survive in it. However regarded, it’s a dead end, isn’t it? The meantime promises to be very mean indeed.

W. Galaxi
INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Stress, Overpopulation & Quantophrenia

One cannot fail to notice the worldwide preoccupation with figures, arithmetic, statistics, percentages: quantophrenia. Its adherents apparently love to compile lists and tables, illustrating specific problems of humanity in numerical form and they are keen to keep sending these lists out to others in an attempt to convince everyone that action must be taken. The recipients, however, are not nearly so interested in such lists; they are constantly being bombarded with details from almost every direction, and are mostly occupied just coping with their own problems.

There surely exists already a certain global awareness of that ever-growing, stifling pressure of people upon each other and the land, which we call overpopulation; what seems to be lacking is the kind of mutual acknowledgement that could create a respite, an easing up of the pressure, a psychic breathing space, an opportunity for a totally different way of being. However, it is a most difficult realisation that acknowledgement begins at home, that is, with awareness itself. Our creaturely pattern is always to reach out and expand, trying vainly to make more and more of the objective world acceptable to our own sensibility. Each of us must ourself be the much-needed transformation centre, because any attempt to transform externally simply compounds the pressure.

Acknowledgement

Why is acknowledgement of overpopulation taboo? Because ultimately, the cause of it—sex—is completely private (thank g0odness!) so that the most people can do is complain about the state of things, rather than be clear about it. At least in public. Nowhere amongst all the concerns expressed for and against overpopulation have the editors of ES seen it brought down to this fundamental point: lust. No, that would seem too simplistic, even rude. It would be like telling an obese person that they are fat! Lust is the principle that overrides everything else, including this: the enormous burden it really is to be a body, not to mention the huge demands each one makes on its environment. This is the fundamental acknowledgement that needs to be made, then there is the chance for grace.

Overpopulation Watch

'Who says there's overpopulation?'

The people say there's overpopulation.

'How do the people say there's overpopulation? I don't hear it?'

Simple: Body Language!!