And now for something completely different...

[--Pete]

Hi,

Well put, Pete, but about that Malthusian thing. It is unevenly reacted to as a pile of Conventional Wisdom or prophecy.

I consider it neither. Simply a statement of a simple mathematical truism; the solution of dP/dt = kP for positive k grows without bounds.

Take the video with a grain of salt, it is a rather gross pile of fear mongering.

That video is precisely the kind of thing I'm thinking of when I say that I hate certain supporters. I wonder how many times they had to shoot that video before they got a copy without the words 'mud people' or worse creeping in. At first it appeared that that video was simple anti-Muslim propaganda. But with the inclusion of the Hispanics in the USA, it became pretty clear that it is a Christian, white supremacist rant. Their argument, like a stopped clock, may have some merit, but if it does, it is accidental at best.

The population growth won't stop any time soon, . . .

Doesn't follow from that video, and not from anything else I've seen. However, you are probably right since there does not seem to be any world leaders capable of leading in that direction and with the guts to try.

I do not care to guess how the struggle for energy and resources, of all sorts, will not result in a hell of a lot more war over the next twenty five years. It's as old an excuse as the one Darius used, or Caesar.

Funny you should mention old Julius. Free association: Caesar, Rome, aqueduct. And water might really be the resource wars will be fought over in the near future.

One of the points that irritates me about the linked film is its certainty that "what is Muslim" will not adapt and evolve as its younger generations grow up in juxtaposition with the more liberally minded regions of the world. It occurs to me that plenty of modern, secularized Muslims don't crank out babies at the 6-8 level, so from that angle alone, population pressure is not guaranted to be unending. But it may be. Depends on a lot of things, your propaganda and education pair considered.

Yes. The assumption that some form of primitive Islam will absorb Europe is indeed foolish. It is much more likely that a Europe not much different from what we have now will result, except that Islam will be added to the main religions which exist there now (Christianity and thinly disguised atheism).

Here is an example of the the cultural assumptions that can change, religion notwithstanding.

Italy. Once a great Catholic spawning pool. The Pope was most pleased, no doubt. I am, since it gave us Pete, and some of my neighbors in Italy. :)

My landlord came from a large, Italian family. He had six brothers and sisters. His wife likewise.

The two of them had two kids, Valeria and Alfredo. The weren't gonna have no more. Why? Cost too much, too much desire to set them up for their future.

WIll this generational change tend to happen as more places get "moderinzed?"

Italians have long since adopted the policy of strictly adhering to Catholic doctrine except when they disagreed with it, in which case we "will do as we do do";)

I don't know. But if it doesn't, then the Malthusian prediction will merely come to pass a century or so later than predicted, it all being a matter of when rather than if.

And to a large part, "how".

--Pete