January 1980 RAIN Page 19 I ,_ Is Population a Problem~ r\1 ~3~ ~ _ .... -..,.., . • . Y . L.1 _ ----- --- I _<i •• ' ,,. , ,. . I \ ~ , :._ ~ ., . Tom Bender and Lane deMoll For a long time the hullab~loo about the Population Explosion has made us personally uncomfortable at an irrational, unreasonable, gut level that is often to be listened to. Over the past year or so the bits and pieces of the factual side of the arguments have been falling into place. That has been paralleled by first-hand experience with the truly sacred atmosphere that surrounds giving birth and the almost magical ability of small children to inspire openness and generosity in those around them-even among strangers in the most unlikely places, like in a bus station or on an elevator. Surely we need more of these warm feelings and bursts of positive energy in the world, not less. The questions raised here are difficult ones and their answers and implications far from sure. Your reactions and responses are welcome. A number of years ago Mao Tse-Tung quietly challenged the prevalent attitude towards population with an unequivocal statement that people are China's greatest resource. His statement seemed to bewilder most people. Was he referring to something unique to . China's situation, or was he saying something quite universal but difficult for our.Western ears to understand? Sometime later, E.F. Schumacher made a similar statement in one of his talks-"Each of us is born with a mind and two hands, and should be considered a valuable resource rather than a burden.'' Again people's reactions seemed to bypass his point. Is it possible that there is a germ of something important here? Could it be that we don't understand the population question well enough? With these questions fermenting in our minds, a recent article on the resistance which various diseases have built up to antibiotics opens up a whole new perspective on the population question. Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness. Using them indiscriminately for every common cold, dumping them into animal feed to counteract unhealthful animal-raising conditions in "food facto!ies," and taking them in massive doses for VD "prevention" as was common• in Vietnam has resulted in extremely rapid development of immune strains of various diseases. The dosage of pencillin needed to have any effect is now tens and hundreds of times what was necessary twenty years ago. Many diseases no longer respond to pencillin at , all, and require stronger antibiotics that have worse side-effects: Rumors of an untreatable strain of VD have struck fear into the hearts and parts of millions. Similarly, resistances to DDT and other pesticides have been built up by malaria-carrying mosquitos and insects that spread other diseases. As it stands now, the whole spectrum of antibiotics is expected to be useless by about 1985, taking us back to where we were a generation ago before the introduction of wonder drugs. • Almost, but not quite. We will again be without the defenses of antibiotics, but facing much more virul~nt strains of diseases and having a population with fewer resistances and immunities to disease. Massive epidemics are almost certain. Antibiotics and our . cock-sure attitude towards disease and death may very soon be seen as another Faustian Bargain for which we now must pay the bill. A larger population may be the only means of having any change left after paying that bill. •The global population "explosion," and our fear of it, has occurred in large part during this technologically produced lull when we thought ourselves exempt from the laws of nature-when death rates from disease and war were temporarily pushed off into the future. We've been in a lucky period when the four horsemen of the apocalypse were away tending matters elsewhere, but they may be returning soon, and with a vengeance spurred by our own inventiveness. Global war, industrial poisons, radiation-related diseases and newly virulent viruses _and bacteria respect no boundaries and put our whole population at risk. When we consider these delayed effects of the actions that have permitted our present short-term population bulge, our fears of overpopulation may become overshadowed by fears of global extinction. The tenor of the massive U.S. government programs to "encourage" birth control both here and abroad raise other questions as to our true motives. The word "control" is an important one here. Verified news reports have revealed forced sterilization of welfare mothers and Native Americans, as well as massive governmentfinanced export of dangerous and defective birth control devices.
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