Re: (fwd from Leonard Nadal) Trotskyism and Population control?

[dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dan Peyser)]

Leonard,

I am afraid that I made myself unclear in my last email. Essentially I was 
engaging in highly
speculative thinking. Historically, population control has been used by 
conservatives and liberals
alike, albeit in different forms, to put blame on the working class for their 
own condition. The
worst of this is seen in the American environmentalist movement, which is 
utterly clueless and has
for the most part died. The standard line from many that are not out-right 
neomalthusians is "Well,
the rich need to learn how to consume less, and the poor need to learn how to 
have fewer babies." The
class and racial implications of this are quite obvious. But what I am pointing 
out is that the
consumer lifestyle lead by the (albeit rapidly disappearing) "middle" classes 
of core nations is not
sustainable as is, let alone if 6 billion people were living it. This is not to 
argue for population
control, however. Birth control is another subject, my main point that I should 
have made earlier is
that there needs to be a serious reevaluation of the errors of the old 
Communist movement regarding
ideas of "material satisfaction," etc. Arguing for population control itself 
presupposes the
maintenance of a certain standard of living, again, enjoyed in core nations and 
to an extent in
semi-peripheral nations. In any case I feel like I am starting to get off 
track, so I'll just end my
email now.

Dan

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