Overpopulation in the USA and the Fate of the Yeast People
Nov 17th, 2009 | By James Howard Kunstler | Category: Economics, Featured
Every time I do a Q and A after a college lecture, somebody says (with a fanfare of indignation) — so as to reveal their own brilliance in contrast to my foolishness — “You haven’t said anything about overpopulation!”
Right. I usually don’t bother. Their complaint, of course, implies that we would do something about overpopulation if only we would recognize it. Which is absurd. What might we do about overpopulation here in the USA? Legislate a one-child policy? Set up an onerous set of bureaucratic protocols forcing citizens to apply for permission to reproduce? Direct the police to shoot all female babies? Use stimulus money to build crematoria outside of Nashville?
It’s certainly true that the planet is suffering from human population overshoot. We’re way beyond “carrying capacity.” Only the remaining supplies of fossil fuels allow us to continue this process, and not for long, anyway. In the meantime, human reproduction rates are also greatly increasing the supply of idiots relative to resources, and that is especially problematic in the USA, where idiots rule the culture and polity.
The cocoon of normality prevents us from appreciating how peculiar and special recent times have been in this country. We suppose, tautologically, that because things have always seemed the way they are, that they always have been the way they seem. The collective human imagination is a treacherous place.
I’m fascinated by the dominion of moron culture in the USA, in everything from the way we inhabit the landscape — the fiasco of suburbia — to the way we feed ourselves — an endless megatonnage of microwaved Velveeta and corn byproducts — along with the popular entertainment offerings of Reality TV, the Nascar ovals, and the gigantic evangelical church shows beloved in the Heartland. To evangelize a bit myself, if such a concept as “an offense in the sight of God” has any meaning, then the way we conduct ourselves in this land is surely the epitome of it — though this is hardly an advertisement for competing religions, who are well-supplied with morons, too.
Moron culture in the USA really got full traction after the Second World War. Our victory over the other industrial powers in that struggle was so total and stupendous that the laboring orders here were raised up to economic levels unknown by any peasantry in human history. People who had been virtual serfs trailing cotton sacks in the sunstroke belt a generation back were suddenly living better than Renaissance dukes, laved in air-conditioning, banqueting on “TV dinners,” motoring on a whim to places that would have taken a three-day mule trek in their granddaddy’s day. Soon, they were buying Buick dealerships and fried chicken franchises and opening banks and building leisure kingdoms of thrill rides and football. It’s hard to overstate the fantastic wealth that a not-very-bright cohort of human beings was able to accumulate in post-war America.
And they were able to express themselves — as the great chronicler of these things, Tom Wolfe, has described so often and well — in exuberant “taste cultures” of material life, of which Las Vegas is probably the final summing-up, and every highway strip, of twenty-thousand strips from Maine to Oregon, is the democratic example. These days, I travel the road up the west shore of Lake George, in Warren County, New York, and see the sad, decomposing relics of that culture and that time in all the “playful” motels and leisure-time attractions, with their cracked plastic signs advertising the very things that they exterminated in the quest for adequate parking — the woodand vistas, the paddling Mohicans, the wolf, the moose, the catamount — and I take a certain serene comfort in the knowledge that it is all over now for this stuff and the class of morons that produced it.
A very close friend of mine calls them “the yeast people.” They were the democratic masses who thrived in the great fermentation vat of the post World War Two economy. They are now meeting the fate that any yeast population faces when the fermentation process is complete. For the moment, they are only ceasing to thrive. They are suffering and worrying horribly from the threat that there might be no further fermentation. The brewers running the vat try to assure them that there’s more sugar left in the mix, and more beer can be made from it, and more yeasts can be brought into this world to enjoy the life of the sweet, moist mash. In fact, one of the brewers did happen to dump about a trillion-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar into the vat during 2009, and that has produced an illusion of further fermentation. But we know all too well that this artificial stimulus has limits.
What will happen to the yeast people of the USA? You can be sure that the outcome will not yield to “policies” and “protocols.” The economy that produced all that amazing wealth is contracting, and pretty rapidly, too, and the numbers among the yeast will naturally follow the downward arc of the story. Entropy is a harsh mistress. In the immediate offing: a contest for the table scraps of the 20th century. We’ve barely seen the beginning of this, just a little peevishness embodied by yeast shaman figures. As hardships mount and hardened emotions rise, we’ll see “the usual suspects” come into play: starvation, disease, violence. We may still be driving around in Ford F-150s, but the Pale Rider is just over the horizon beating a path to our parking-lot-of-the-soul.
It’s a sad and tragic process and, all lame metaphors aside, there are real human feelings at stake in our prospects for loss of every kind, but especially in the fate of people we love. The human race has known catastrophe before and come through it. There’s some credible opinion that “this time it’s different” but who really knows? We have our 2012 apocalypse movies. The people of the 14th century, savaged by the Black Death, had their woodcuts of dancing skeletons. Feudalism was wiped out in that earlier calamity but, whaddaya know, less than a century after that the Renaissance emerged in a wholly new culture of cities. Maybe we will emerge from our culture of free parking to a new society of living, by necessity, much more lightly on the planet and for a long time, perhaps long enough to allow the terrain to recover from all the free parking.
Regards,
James Howard Kunstler
November 17, 2009
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I think you meant Enthalpy.
The 3 laws of thermodynamics as applied to people: You cannot win, you cannot break even and you can never give up.
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Overpopulation is yet another thing the free market cures. Those who do not work do not eat, and those who do not eat either change their ways or cease to exist after several months. The US has meddled in the affairs of poor nations for years. Feeding starving children is not a kindness; they grow up to be adults who propagate, producing far more starving children. The Greenies’ obsession against DDT (a very useful substance that does NOT make birds’ eggs fragile, and even if it did most of us think human beings are more important than dear little birdies) causes the deaths of millions every year. We don’t die or get malaria here in the US, but I’m extremely tired of slapping the little bloodsuckers because of someone else’s unscientific sentimentality, to put the motive as innocently as possible. That’s one reason I live in the country: we don’t have enough mosquitoes to talk about, and when we do I pull out the flying insect killer and the 100% DEET. It is almost impossible to find even 25% DEET now…one could almost suppose that there are those who enjoy pushing policies that make us suffer. When a mosquito bites his first act is to inject a painkiller and some of the blood of his last victim. In time will we discover that AIDS and assorted viruses can be transmitted in this way? Ah, for the days of Walter Reed. Will anyone care, after having been brainwashed for decades by what I sometimes refer to as the prophets of Baal worshipping the Lord of the Hills? Massive death from disease does alleviate overpopulation, of course. I’m just glad that no one has come up with a government program to protect fleas. If we were forbidden to control those, would we have another round of the Black Death? I don’t know. I don’t want to find out the hard way. As for the Renaissance being the result of the fall of feudalism, I think that the result of the fall of (mis)representative democracy will be the return of the lifestyles in England c. 1800. We’ll probably lose 40% of the population from violence and disease first, but those who survive will settle back into a pretty rigid class structure: landed gentry, yeoman farmers, a small number of petty shop keepers and artisans (farriers, cobblers, and such), tenant farmers, and an extremely large servant class. There won’t be any “safety net” other than families and working for a living. America will devolve into contiguous circles of about 25 miles, that being the distance a horse and buggy can travel, round trip, on a rare trip to the market. Anyone who lobbies for taxation for public works and “welfare” will probably be lynched. The survivors will know why they are there.
hmm, Malthaus long ago was debunked.
Seems the millions killed during W.W.II put a dent in over population. The 2.1 child club in America has left to few workers to support the ponzi scheme called S.S.I. The coming flu will kil millions around the world.
Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. Burke 1880
Population isn’t the problem, resources are the problem or how they are allocated and this can never be taken care of by governmet, I agree with Mike population will take care of itself with out to much intervention from the human side, and why don’t the people who say that there are too many people do the right thing and volunteer to check out?
Overpopulation?… I guess I am skeptical… I travel the world often… I literally circle the globe EVERY month with my chosen profession… and I sure see a whole lot of empty areas…
How many people are there in the world… and how much space do they occupy?
If you do the math… go to the various government websites and get the numbers…
FACT: If you took the WHOLE population of the world…
and put them ALL in the state of Texas..
NOBODY ANYPLACE ELSE on the WHOLE PLANET..
each person would occupy 1200 square feet!!!
The population of the whole world ’stuffed’ into the state of Texas and EVERYBODY would have 1200 sq feet each…
HMMM
Mike..the millions not killed in WW II produced the baby boomers. The dropping 2.1 child club has Americans being outbred four to one by other ethnicities. Don’t worry about what they are calling the Swine Flu. This is one of the lightest years yet…which does not mean, necessarily, that some day there will not be a real pandemic.
Vic…we here in Texas would take mighty unkindly to putting the entire population of the world here! Got too danged many people already.
Yes, we have overshot the carrying capacity of the planet. By drawing down ecological capital, instead living off the returns of that capital, short term growth can be accomplished at the cost of reducing future carrying capacity, with generally disastrous results.
http://www.selfdestructivebast.....acity.html
Hi, Canada North. Haven’t heard from you in a while! Since the world cannot agree upon anything as simple as what time it is, perhaps we should treat this like a new gold rush and acquire land.
Vic…does the term “arable land” mean anything to you? It sure does to the Japanese. Discuse “temperate climate” with the Russions. Crops perished in California again this year for lack of water–water that was sequestered by the government–while we here in the center of the continent have been under drought conditions for several years.
I don’t know what your profession is, but could just anyone do it without training and experience? Does philosophy and skill count for nothing? American farmers and ranchers aren’t a bunch of hick bumpkins who couldn’t get jobs doing anything else. We aren’t all standing around in bib overals with straws in our mouths. The government destroyed a third of our corn crop–1/12rh of all that grown in the world–again by demanding that it be turned into ethanol to adulterate gasoline. Ethanol requires more energy to produce than it delivers, ruins motors, and cannot be eaten. You cannot reduce this to bodies and calories per day.
Doom and gloom futures prices certainly seem to be rising in value lately, but, as markets go, there will soon be an oversupply resulting in falling prices, lowered production, and, thankfully, at last, scarcity. Apocalyptic bubbles of disgust for the world as it is have periodically entertained and misinformed mankind for a few thousand years. We are in one now. Time for me to be a contrarian and to invest in believing in the goodness of the world as it is.
I often hedge my bets, but I’m going all in on this one because most of Kuntsler’s “Big Problems” are just temporary downward blips to the upward march of progress. Heavy population densities actually increase productivity and creativity. Commodity food and energy prices will continue their steady historical downward bias because of dependable market demand. As will commodity technology prices. Even materials prices will deflate with the advent of nanotech material substitutes. Basic health care prices will fall over time as our standard of health will continue to rise due to improvements in biotechnology. Kuntsler’s short trade on America has been right for a while, and it might even be a few years before it’s safe to take the long side on the broad US market, but there are plenty of organisms out there besides yeasts, and some of them can live and thrive in very harsh environments. Certain bacteria can reproduce in a medium equivalent to battery acid. Other bacteria have been found living in the radioactive waters used in nuclear power plants. Likewise, people adapt and prosper under difficult conditions. Seems that somehow morons, idiots and serfs built a civilization that, thank God, has, so far, always had plenty of time to contemplate its own demise and pull itself back from the brink.
Dear Bill:
A well-written article that states one side of the issue clearly. The main problem I see with it is that it does not leave a good fall-back position.
One of my famous (amongst friends and family) sayings is, “The worst that can happen is…” The worst that can happen from betting all we’ve got on the opposite view is that the ranch will begin to produce enough to pay an on-site manager and an additional hand until my children may be ready to live here. I will look like a gullible little old lady shrieking because she saw a mouse, but even that is okay because we have so dawggoned much fun raising cattle, goats, hogs, and chickens.
The worst that can happen to YOU is starving or dying in a riot. You’ve got a lot more risk exposure than we do. Might want to check your hole card. Smile…I’d rather that you are able five years from now to say, “Linda, we TOLD you it was just another bump in the road.” I do hope so, but I don’t believe it. Thanks for an excellent response. Linda Brady Traynham
Linda
God bless America, the land that brings us such freedom to pursue our diverse dreams. I hope it stays that way. Seems like so many want to force everyone to work not on a farm like yours which sounds nice and safe and sensible but on Maggie’s Farm which isn’t very nice or safe, is run by gangsters, is mortgaged to the hilt, and, where they want to ‘fine you every time you slam the door.’
The important goal is to live an authentic, creative and meaningful life and to build a community of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues who work together toward mutual satisfaction. The worst thing that can happen is not to have tried. My goal here is to unmask the erroneous assumptions and conclusions of James Kuntsler. For example, let’s take a few of his pet phrases above and expose his faulty thinking. 1. “a not-very-bright cohort of human beings”. Wrong. The Americans who labored together in the last two centuries to create the amazing world we live in were probably the brightest most creative cohort of human beings who have ever lived on this planet. 2. “a contest for the table scraps of the 20th century”. Not so fast. We are only a decade into the 21st century and the world has already created more scientific information and technological innovation in the last ten years than in the previous twenty. No need for scraps. 3. “fiasco of suburbia”. Not a fiasco to most “Morons”. Just free markets at work supplying products in demand. Safe , clean neighborhoods with good schools and affordable housing. Not for everybody, but hey, it’s a free country, right?
The idea that the globe is overpopulated is absurd. If the State of Texas was divided in 60′ X 120′ lots and a house built on each, just four people per house would contain the whole global population. That leaves a whole lot of real estate for everything else. It’s time to put a stop to the overpopulation myth and start thinking.
Apollos…if you think that is such a good idea, you build slums in YOUR state and figure out how to feed the residents.
Bill Simmons, dear…I LIKE the way you think and express yourself. Fine riposte, Scout, and a beautiful clarification of your position–which turns out to be very close to mine. I would be pleased if you asked Gary for my address (chuckle…he doesn’t have anything better to do with his time in a world where Mr. Hadar’s articles hit his desk, now, does he?) because not only do I think we would have great fun corresponding, but–like a true Conservative–there is something in it for me besides the pleasure of your company. I hope all of you are keeping up at http://www.thetexasring.com, because Michael Rough and I have a problem: we have made a far bigger splash–ALL Michael’s doing–as new sites grow than most would expect, and we have some of the most fantastic writers in America (such as Tex Norton, Tony De Maio, Kristen Hall, and Richard Marmo whom you know from W&G), but it is a constant struggle to keep the Texas Ring from being the Linda and Tony show, which it was never supposed to be. The purpose is to present first rate W&G quality articles Gary doesn’t have space to print. Tony and I are very prolific, to put the best face on the matter. The only thing I need more than additional writers is to be Empress of the Twin Universes. Maybe to lose several dress sizes. Given my choice, I will forgo fine, passionate, intelligent, articulate new friends only for a way to throw America back to 1780 so we can start over and keep the republic.
Kindly do not tar me with the strictures you have for James Howard Kunstler. Gratitude prevents me from ever saying blatantly in print that he and I do not agree on the future of America “if” what we foresee (we are very, very close on that) comes to pass, but it is fair to say that he is a famous urban-planning (suburban, whatever) architect and lecturer, and I am Mrs. Nobody From Nowhere Most Of You Ever Heard Of who runs a two-horse operation and raises goats. HE thinks in terms of the future of the populace, while I think about the glossy hide I prefer to keep unperforated and fed and explaining how I plan on going about it to others. Entirely different perspectives. He’s a city fellow who thinks anyone can be a farmer or rancher, while I’m a country bumpkin who knows that Texas A&M doesn’t offer degrees in Animal Husbandry for lack of better ideas. (Well…smile…okay, so in very long lives my darling Charles and I have pretty much lived everywhere and done everything and we think utter bliss is the life we have put together. We really have had the oddest opportunities! He used to have drinks with Lucky Lucciano after he was exiled, and I have scrammed a nuclear reactor and been one of the few guests at a small house party which included King Farouk’s sister. She was the dull one in the crowd! He’s an honorary member of the Princess Pat’s, while I have been an elected official. Trust me: raising goats and cattle is far more fun, and a great deal less time-consuming. I could handle the opposition with ease, but “my” party appeared to think I was a moving target. MDC spent 5 1/2 years under the sea, and I spent 25 being primarily a Donna Reed housewife, looking after hearth, home, and the wives and children of those under my husbamd’s command.)
Thank you for the compliment, but the Bar TS (jokes hidden in that, starting with the fact that the intertwined T-S looks like a dollar sign) is not just, “nice, safe, and sensible,” it is full of joy, three years of non-stop work, most of our assets, enormous amounts of thought, and it isn’t mortgaged, either. NOTHING here is, not because we are rich–we sure aren’t, in money–but because we understand deferred gratification, what is important, and how to shop for what we need to reach our goal of the closest we can come to complete self-sufficiency in a dead heat with having NO FRNs other than pensions–snicker, as long as THEY will come in, eventually–and the devaluation of the dollar. It’s all about knowing what you want and locking in current value of your assets–and helping others, when it is appropriate.*. I usually try to do things on no more than 25 cents (I still can’t believe modern keyboards do not have a cent sign) on the dollar. Pretty much, if it isn’t on sale, we don’t even look at it. We only have one car built in this century–by choice. MY favorite is an ‘88 Jaguar XJ-6 in superb condition we paid darned near two thousand dollars for! {$2000.00}She is totally luxurious, gets 25 MPG, and turns heads wherever she goes because she isn’t an anoymous bread box SUV or shoebox compact. My second favorite is the Vroom-Vroom truck, named for the noise the moter makes, an ‘89 Chevy Silverado extended cab covered with the scars of tasks done well. I’m more proud of that than the first owners were. THAT is a ranch truck!
So, m’dear, this is your invitation for a private “interview” via exchanging e-mails, that being how one gets to be a member of the very small Texas Ring. (At worst we could just enjoy writing.)
The process is simple, Shooters: you catch my eye by responding to an article any of several people wrote, I ask you to write to me, we have fun, and eventually I say, “Get out on the stage, Gwendolyn, and you’ll be a big star for thirty years!” Well, at least you’ll have fun. If you want to skip that, write articles and submit them directly to Mike at http://www.thetexasring.com. I read the best-known columnists in the USA on Townhall every day, and I’ll put the innate ability shown on Morning Whiskey (i.e., responding to articles here) on at least that level. Statists who wander into our midst, you, too, have talent (which you can undertstand why I think you misuse) and have the whole of MSM to offer it to. I’ll tell you again: I’m a spotter of talent, and there is an abundance of it around here. Isn’t it fun?! LBT
* We aren’t supposed to brag, and I’m not, I’m explaining how my philosophy works. Today I decided totally out of nowhere to tell the three families who live in what I prefer to call “the retirement community,” rather than a small trailer lot, on the banks of one of our small lakes, to take $50 off their December rent. They are excellent tenants, pay their rent promptly, have been there for years, keep the grounds manicured beautifully, built a dock for fishing and a tiny boat, and never cause any problems, and it is Christmas. Times are hard for all of us, let the grandchildren have a little more for Christmas.
I sent Asia in to have an old 240D Mercedes we’re lending a friend in need inspected. I told Asia to go to a place where a man had been kind to me three years ago…and not only did the proprietor remember me but he and Asia turn out to have acquaintances in common in a tiny hamlet, pop. 300, including someone who worked for my family 50 years ago. The man not only replaced a broken lens on the spot, but he said that Asia could go back later to give him the twenty bucks additional. (That can happen in modern America; you expect a fee of $12.50 and end up owing $67.50. I had only given Asia $50, thinking that would be ample.) He asked if he could take his grandchildren fishing over Christmas break. In general, the answer is a polite, firm, “No.” But…hey…he’s got enough chits that he’s practically “family,” as Southerners count it, of course he can–and Asia, don’t just call back and tell him “yes,” but make it an invitation. There is a difference.
Finally, a friend passed on a request from a friend of her friend, for the services of a French Alpine buck–such asThunder, our gorgeous one. The man was looking for stud services, but gee…Thunder LIKES pretty ladies who smell good, and the good Lord said to give away what we have lots of. Thunder has lots of testosterone! I’m not going to tell John G. that the fee is $150 each plus two dollars a day to feed each of the girls he brings to visit Thunder, who will be enchanted, during the 5 weeks they will be here. I don’t even want one of the “get” only partially because they would have far too high of consanguinity with Thunder. Sure, the price I just quoted is standard and reasonable…but John is just starting up and has 3 goats. We are up to nine does and will be buried in over a dozen kids (please, dear Lord) next spring. There is a very real difference between doing the easiy, obvious kindness and creating “entitled” classes. It is about the simple kindnesses we can do for each other gladly. This sounds like one of Tony’s Fabulous Fables, doesn’t it?! If I take care of three goats (who really won’t put me out much for feed or labor) as a gift to someone trying to build the life we’re working on, if John is lucky he’ll end up with a fine, new purebred buckling of his own while he establishes his herd. If John G. can go three years without paying stud and stabling fees it will be a blessing out of all proportion to at most $25 for grain I’ll feed his girls.
The IRS holds that I have an obligation to make a profit or they will stigmatize what I do as a “hobby” and refuse to allow me to deduct expenses that feel sometimes like the defense budget of a small nation. There is more to life than brooding about taxes. Merry Christmas to Brandi (a French Alpine goat), Thunder, John G., and me. Under THEIR rules I don’t have to make a profit for several years anyway. Good thing!
One last exhausted five a.m. chuckle…I have to be elected a member of the local Producer’s Food Coop, basically a feed store, to get a 2% rebate on purchases at the end of the year. Mother, inexplicably, allowed our membership to lapse after over 50 years. What is FUNNY is that I have to swear that my attempted goal is “to ENDEAVOR to make a profit in agriculture!” Isn’t that a riot? I don’t have to make a profit–far harder than you who shop for groceries think–I just have to promise to TRY to make a profit. Oh, my stars and garters. Well, life is too short to fill out long forms and wait for once a month votes. We buy most of our feed and supplies from a small, local firm only half as far away. MY solution is to use a dear friend’s telephone number to bring up HIS COOP account when I spend a bunch there; better that he should get fifteen or twenty dollars because I bought fencing material; he does lots of favors for me.
I told you this to illustrate old American customs: dream, work hard, and accumulate caches of good deeds. Who knows when someone I have helped easily, at almost no cost, will help someone else in great need–or pull a thorn out of MY paw. Welfare can’t do that.
The very best of Thanksgiving, friends. Right now I’m thankful that our old Babe asked to go s’ouside go baffroom (meaning she won’t wake me up once I get to sleep) and that we still have hope for the future and abundant blessings now. Goats are even more fun than grandchildren and less expensive–and I can turn them out in the pasture when I don’t have time to play with them. Regards, LBT
Dear Bill: It isn’t so much wanting to “force” people to work on farms as seeing that all likely scenarios for the next twenty years indicate that somewhere between security and survival will depend upon working where food is produced. Thanks for the compliment, and do come visit the ranch if you’re ever in the area. We intend to start gardening pretty seriously in 2010, but basically we are a “ranch” because we raise cattle and goats. Our goal is to raise all of the produce we need to begin with, then expand to selling at farmers’ markets, and then see where life takes us–but basically we plan to keep raising beef. Suburbia is a major upgrade for humanity, even if we prefer to live in Mildew Manor, the run down disgrace MDC and I are renovating and expanding slowly, enjoying it thoroughly. Country life has been sneered at for years, I think for political purposes. A cheerful truth is that we have far more leisure and don’t work nearly as hard as wage slaves, and pretty much we love our “jobs.” Hook the populace on nonessentials and get them to owe their souls to the company store, and they are far easier to handle. I can only scratch the surface of your great letter, so I’m going to go write an article on it. If you don’t see it here, some day, it will be over on http://www.thetexasring.com. The first sentence of your second paragraph, alone, is worth thousands of words. Regards, Linda.
The USA cultivated a Moron society since WWI, the day the “Superior Moron Woodrow Wilson entered the mess in Europe, to defeat the damned Germany they called them. The result was Versailles, and the road to Hitler. The second Moron FDR, loved uncle Stalin and gave victory away to the Communist’s. After that America had only two President’s with common sense,Eisenhower, Reagan. The rest were nuts, philanderer, wargoing fools, until the Messiah arrived. World unity and brotherhood was proclaimend from all of them. In the meantime, the “Idiot Population” has grown Worldwide, rased out of control,and damands to be fed. We already spent Billions for the reproduction of even more Idiots. The latest gimmick “Global Warming attract’s already an unlimited number of political idiots roaming the planet. A solution to correct the wrong seems almost beyond our limited imagination. 80 % of the World population still live in misery and are surplus based on ” Western standards”. Who is taking care of them?
Dear Karl: I agree with you, although sweet little old ladies don’t put truths that baldly. I suggest a free market solution and that we become isolationists! I don’t care who takes care of the rest of them; they aren’t my problem, and they ought not to be our government’s self-imposed burden. Anyone who wants to cause worse problems through temporary palliative efforts with his or her own money may do so, but not with my blessing. It is mildly interesting that people insist pets should be spayed or neutered yet feed what are basically feral humans as a “kindness.” No, I am NOT advocating forced sterilization for everyone with an IQ of under 129 or limiting the number of births to illegal aliens that will result in even more of our tax dollars being thrown away. I wouldn’t give illegals a dime in the first place; I’d toss ‘em back to wherever they came from, and their “anchor” babies along with them; a firm principle of law is that criminals are not supposed to be allowed to profit from their crimes–at least until they get “too big to fail.” Interesting how do-gooder programs turn out, though, isn’t it? Most of the millions of abortions performed in the US every year are from the very class of people least likely to produce thinking, achieving, honorable adults. Of course there are exceptions, from every walk of life! If Paris and Nicki Hilton and Missy Hyatt are worth the air they breath (or carbon dioxide they exhale, as the Greenies would put it) I, at least, can’t see how. Even hereditary and environment do not always produce winners–or loosers. One of my heroines cleaned office buildings at night to rear two children. You may not know my favorite General, a fellow named Price, but you may have heard of his sister, Leontyne, who sang a little bit. Poverty did not prevent Mrs. Price from inculcating what it takes to succeed and HER children did not end up on welfare. All families have a soap opera; heredity and environment even with good parenting can do only so much. The law of diminishing returns can’t be repealed by Congress. LBT
Dear Linda, greetings and salutations from one of the more remotes parts of the world a long long way from Texas. I’m a 60 year old thinker who left the stream…main and subsidiary’s many years ago to live a simpler life, far from the ‘madding crowd’, I’m not a rancher (farmer), I like wild fowl and wetlands, bogs and big trees etc. something primeval in that, anyway thru my thinking I foresaw this burst of bad breeding from the sixties onwards, which sadly came to pass, and lately it’s been on an exponential curve almost vertical. The visual signs of the total breakdown in genetically stable make-up is in the heads of young males (mostly white) where you see premature balding at age 20, cleverly disguised by the shaved head look, there are many other telltale signs (skin,teeth,bone structure) that I see distinctly as I observe from behind my darkened glasses. Mostly genetics, some physiological some physiognomy, but all of them deep indicators of a severe degradation of the human frame.
My reason for writing is to pass on my seasons greetings and to add that there many other people around the planet that see, hear and believe that ‘mother nature’ (the planet) is not very far from reeking a brutal toll on the human, probably virally, they being the most resistant to control. It’s not usual for me to go to print as over the years others I’ve talked too about my thoughts and observations have merely shrugged and passed bye, so in the end we who see and think resort to teaching only our ‘kith and kin’ and the rest shall do as they can (or not)….so please thru your writings attempt to stop the wonderful caring USA from sending more food/aid to those countries that will use it for nothing more than breeding tonic for more genetic waste on our planet. In all my years I have seen not one jot of hard evidence that has helped these countries and there peoples to better lives, instead all I see is further bedraggled generations of international beggars. This is truly the international cruel crime facing mankind today. LN