Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Overpopulation




Overpopulation is the central problem that humanity, the ecological balance of nature and our individual quality of life are facing today. Energy crisis, food shortages, totalitarianism, repression, unemployment, pollution, mass extinction of animals and plants, desertification, but also the alienationl, the sense of superfluity, depression, everyday stress - everything is ultimately the direct or indirect result of overpopulation.

To combat the problem of overpopulation, there are basically two approaches: either reduction of natality (birth rate) or increase in mortality (death rate).For humanitarian reasons, most people tend to give preference to thew first approach, the reduction of the birth rate, since nobody wants to deny the right to live to somebody who is already born. This essay will show, however, that this is the wrong approach. It leads to new problems and risks a collapse of the total population. Moreover, it is based on a false understanding of life itself.

The reduction of natality as a solution was successfully implemented in China as a state-decreed measure, in other industrialized countries, it became a reality without government pressure. The birth rates are falling in almost all industrial countries. The average number of children a woman gives birth during her lifetime has dropped to less than two, which is less than would be necessary to keep the population stable, and therefore leads to a reduction of the population. However this population reduction is currently more than compensated by immigration from developing countries, so that it has not resulted in an effective decrease of the total population.
Even though this is only a transient effect, which will end when the birth rate among immigrants will also decrease, it will rather lead to new problems (which are already being felt today) than it would bring the society closer to a solution.
The main problem today as a result of the reduced birth rate is the aging of the total population. Apart from the fact that it turns the natural demographic pyramid upside down and endangers the retirement system as well as the entire social welfare system, it has not led to any improvement of the problems caused by overpopulation.A complicating factor is that a population with a higher average age also consumes significantly more resources than a younger population. This is caused first of all by the higher social status and the amount of possessions accumulated during lifetime and also by the fact that an aging population requires significantly more medical efforts to be kept alive, both contributing to a higher impact on natural resources and environmental burdens. All together an older population causes a higher damage to the natural environment, has more vehicles and has a higher total consumption than an equally large but younger population.
In the short term an aging population even aggravates the problems related to overpopulation until the welfare system finally collapses and therefore at last massively increases the mortality, although latter one was meant to be avoided.
The problem of overpopulation would ultimately have been resolved, but not at all in the intended manner and with a huge risk for the survival of the population due to the collapse of the existing social order.

So lert's consider the alternative approach to the problem of overpopulation, the deliberate increase of mortality. Some critics of this approach argue that a higher mortality means the arbitrary killing of a large portion of the population and therefore associate this approach with genocide. But this is not necessarily the case. An increase in mortality can be achieved simply by return to the natural biological equilibrium of birth and death. Overpopulation is a phenomenon that does not occur in nature in this magnitude, if one does not interfere with the existing natural equilibrium.In order to increase the mortality to a healthy level, it is not necessary to actively do anything, but simply to do nothing at all and let things take their course, according to the Taoist principle of "Wu Wei".

In practice, it means discontinuing to protect people from the dangers of everyday life, be it through safety measures, the restrictions on the use of weapons in daily interactions or free access to health care and preventive medical measures. At the same time, this also means the absence of welfare measures for socially weaker and humanitarian aid to developing countries.This may seem heartless, but it is the natural way to maintain a balance between the population and the natural resources.It must also mean change in our basic attitude towards life, away from excessive security and towards a greater willingness to take risks.The fear of death in modern society has become an obsession. The issue of "death" itself has become a taboo. Death is avoided under all circumstances, denied, or at least delayed, without regard to the actual quality of life, even in cases where it makes no sense because the whole existence has become an endless state of suffering.This fear of death in modern society is based on an incorrect understanding of death and consequently also a false understanding of life. In an attempt to oust death, life itself has been made more and more similar to death.Death is nothing to fear. Death is not negative, it is not suffering, it is neutral. Death is like the zero line of a sine function, not positive, not negative, not up, not down, always consistent, in perfect balance and eternal stasis. Death is just what the modern man seeks in life: absolute stability and absolute security, absolute justice.And just as an oscillation is created by a peak and an identical trough from the flat zero line, so life is created by a dynamical up and down from the complete stasis of death. Stability is replaced by instability, security by insecurity, stillness by movement, justice by inequality. For everything positive an equal amount of negative has to be created. From particle physics we have learned that particles always occur in pairs that mirror each other, particle and antiparticle, proton and antiproton, electron and positron. And when particle and antiparticle collide, they cancel each other out and return to nothingness (actually energy). The creation of matter out of nothing is like cutting out a piece of paper from an infinite, smooth paper surface. Where the piece of paper was cut out, a hole of the same size remains, the particle (cut-uot piece of paper on the paper surface) and its antiparticle (hole in the paper surface).
Life works the same way. Death is the total balance, the zero line. To create pleasure in life, the same amount of suffering must be created. To accumulate wealth, the same amount of material possessions has to be taken away from others. More inequality, more dynamics means more life.

Modern people on the other hand want just the opposite: justice for all, security, everlasting stability, exactly what constitutes death..Ultimately, this will never be achieved in life, because it would mean precisely the absence of what life means.
In his desire to make life like death, modern man has created a bizarre situation. He desires security. Everything must be insured, so you can suffer any material loss, but by the increase of insurance fees and taxes, it also becomes harder to gain any wealth. The state is expected to protect the individual, even from himself and his own possible errors. Freedom is perceived as threatening because it represents a risk factor. Therefore it is drowned in an ever-growing flood of laws and regulations.Health and social insurance are expected to protect the people from any inconvenience in life. And even life itself can be insured by life insurances. Class differences and discrimination are outlawed. Everyone should be equal.As a result of this approach to life, man is more and more concerned with preserving what he has instead of trying anything new in order to avoid risks. He has become phlegmatic and it is virtually impossible to get him to fight for a cause or to risk his life for something. The successful application of this strategy has led eventually to an exponential increase in population numbers. Life is longer, but has also become boring. Finally it has led humanity into the current situation of overpopulation, and the general feeling of alienation.

We have to overcome this wrong attitude. We must cease to fear death. We must be willing to take risks. We must begin again, to appreciate a short intense life higher than a long and boring. We must not act against nature, but let her have her own course. Who is destined to fail should fail. There is nothing wrong with death. Who fails and dies in the process, only returns back from the negative range to the neutral zero line. It makes no sense to keep him in a state of suffering, just to prevent him from dying. There is no merit in becoming 80 or 90 years old, if life from a certain age on has only become a hopeless struggle against aging and disease. Let us live intensively and willing to take risks and let us die early and without fear.This is the healthy way to increase the mortality of the population to a natural level and to address overpopulation and its problems.Let us trust the course of nature. Nature knows, even without our intervention, what is best.

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