(fwd from Leonard Nadal) Trotskyism and Population control?

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ recvd bounce Thursday, converted from html ]

Dan, As a newcomer, your post made me pause.  Surely one doesn't have to
be a Malthusian to support population control.  However, discussions
about population control don't take place in a vacuum.  Population
control functions as an ideology, not as a physical or social
science. It has a history and that history is/was to justify/blame
scarcity as a result of the "idle," "fornicating," "poor."  It is the
ideological function of this proposition that marks it as a tool for
repression, much as the spectacular function of the space shuttle, in
both its success and it's "tragic" failure marks the resulting
pseudo-drama as a tool for repression-- patriotism, honoring the
memories, flag draped coffins etc...  One doesn't have to be a
Malthusian, but no Marxist should ever be caught dead or alive
suggesting there is any function to population control other than its
service to the existing order.  We're not talking about birth control,
but justifying the denial of resources, the availability of resources,
to those already living when we discuss population control.  Thanks.
Leonard Nadal




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