The insanity that encourages overpopulation

Joe,

I loved your rant, "Nine Billion Little Feet", but I have one teeny little point. It is beyond embarrassing to me that our generation did in fact, put one of our own in the White House -- and the bastard turned out to be a reactionary counter-revolutionary driving this country like a bat out of hell toward 1929 and beyond.

What we need is focus. Why are six kids a good idea in Belize? What cultural identity makes it so? Is this factor shared among other peasant peoples? Can we change it? Don't look at me, man. All I can add is the obvious insanity of Viagra, en vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, the Catholic Church, and the U.S. tax code which encourages procreation in the face of this crisis.

As regards overpopulation and its unpleasant implications for human destiny, Walt Kelly's Pogo says it about right: "We have met the enemy and he is us." But this isn't just true about the disastrous effects of overpopulation, it is even more true as regards the general willingness of most to agree that overpopulation is a problem combined with their unwillingness to seriously consider approaches to curbing population growth -- about as sane as driving over the cliff, screaming, with our foot pushing the accelerator to the floor. Finally, even if you and I drove a rubber-band driven cars and ate Purina, there is a subculture of rich bastards among us who do ever better in terms of yachts and Hummers the more mouths there are to feed. And those bastards control everything.

Forget the beer, pass the Dickel.

Rich
Portland, Oregon

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Rich,

Regarding, "Forget the beer, pass the Dickel," sounds like you and I are viewing it all from about the same deck chair on this sinking ship and drawing the same conclusion -- that the sea water up around our necks is not a good mixer with Dickel.

In art and labor,

Joe