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From: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.sci
Subject: Re: Population control
Message-ID: <487@meccts.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Aug-86 21:14:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: meccts.487
Posted: Wed Aug 13 21:14:12 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Aug-86 04:54:26 EDT
References: <7802093@inmet> <543@gargoyle.UUCP>
Reply-To: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein)
Organization: MECC Technical Services
Lines: 85
Xref: watmath net.politics:18231 net.sci:1506

In article <543@gargoyle.UUCP> carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) writes:
>...In his writings Ehrlich (for what it's worth, his
>mother's name is Rosenberg) has emphasized the necessity for avoiding
>the focusing of population control measures on particular ethnic or
>minority groups or other relatively powerless groups (see any of his
>writings on the population problem).  An important argument he
>adduces in favor of planned population control is that it will help
>to *prevent* Nazi-like regimes from arising, seeking Lebensraum for
>their populations, and practicing "population control" through
>genocide.
>
>In view of the foregoing, any attempt to associate Paul Ehrlich in
>any way with Nazi ideology is a despicable slander.


You know perfectly well that I said Ehrlich used "Nazi like
statements."  Trying to prove I, or anyone else, said he is personally
associated with the Nazi regime is simple deception on your part.  
Thus the maiden name of Ehrlich's mother has as much relevance 
here as your mother's maiden name.

While it is true that neither the Constitution nor the Declaration
of Independence gurantees the right of reproduction, neither does it
explicitly gurantee the right to choose your own job, your spouse, 
your home or any of a million other personal choices.  To say that 
the government has a right to interfere in such a personal choice,
such as the choice to have children, is abhorrent.  

Authoritarian governments have never had this disposition against 
the government controlling such decisions.  The Chinese today 
practise forced abortions and infantcide.  Other totalitarian 
regimes such as the Nazi's would reward women 
for producing as many children (cannon fodder) as possible.  The 
view that coercive population control is a right of the state 
is not a view that is very compatible with a free society.  

>I also fail to see anything remotely shocking about the proposal to
>deny aid to countries that do not try to limit their populations.
>Ehrlich believes, with good reason, that merely sending food aid to
>countries with rapidly expanding populations is in the nature of
>handing out aspirin to a person who is afraid to see a doctor about
>his cancer, or, to put it in terms that right-wingers can understand,
>handing out money to "overweight welfare mamas" (Bethell's phrase)
>who will then have more babies to get more money to spend on TV sets
>and Cadillacs.  In fact, the case is even stronger than these
>analogies suggest, because the exploding population of an
>underdeveloped country will eventually have serious negative effects
>on every inhabitant of the planet, as Ehrlich has explained in
>detail.  The moral thing to do, he believes, is to encourage, in
>whatever ways we can, such countries as India to control the growth
>of their populations.

Even today, as several people have noted when talking about the
Ethiopian problem, the world produces enough food.  The problem is 
distribution and storage.


What started this entire discussion was the attack on Dr. Cohen by
Mr. Ehrlich.  (This is also about my only interest in this
discussion.)  From Mr. Ehrlich's article we found out that 
he is expert enough in the field of nuclear science to not 
only attack the integrity of all nuclear engineers but also 
all researchers in any related fields if need be.  Dr. Cohen's 
survey of health physicists was dismisssed with a wave of the 
biologist's hand.

Interested readers will remember that it was energy scholar Mr.
Ehrlich who said that nuclear waste in a river caused oysters to
glow.

>  ...During the 1970s the Pee-pull finally got sick and
>  tired of the apocalyptic rantings of Paul Ehrlich, and one fine night
>  after he had given a rabble-rousing speech at the Marblehead Junior
>  College he was tarred and feathered by the Youth for American
>  Freedom, loaded into a cart borrowed from the town museum, and pulled
>  to the edge of town, where he was thrown ignominiously into the Fort
>  Mudge Memorial Dump.  

If this is true it is sickening.  I hope the thugs were arrested..

-- 
Michael V. Stein
Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation - Technical Services

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