In an interview in 2012 Stanley Johnson the father of the recently resigned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had talked about population control and how he wants to reduce Britain’s population to around “10 or 15 million” by 2025.
How much does this relate to what the world is going on right now!
He had said:
“You have to get population under control as well because if you look at it in economic terms how do you sustain increases in per capita income at a time when you have rising population without rising economic growth whereas if you have a declining population — which I will aim for — then of course even a stable economic growth situation will give you increases in per capita income.”
Full interview can be watched here:
What is interesting is that back in April 1968 a group of thirty individuals from ten countries made of scientists financial economists humanists industrialists national and international civil servants gathered in the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome to discuss the present and future predicament of mankind [jaħasra they are always worried about mankind] since in 1968 the argument of exponential growth had already gain some new footing and by way of funding this group could start a new study or project.
But it is very important to note that this group is by nature comprised of the who’s who amongst the highest ranking officials and international business and academic leadership. So perhaps it’s no surprise that their study’s impact has been almost as long lasting as it was immediate.
Out of this project grew THE CLUB OF ROME “an informal organization that has been aptly described as an “invisible college”” whose “purposes are to foster understanding of the varied but interdependent components-economic political natural and social that make up the global system in which we all live; to bring that new understanding to the attention of policy-makers and the public worldwide;” and “promote new policy initiatives and action”. [positive wording is always used for them to impose their goals]
This Club’s introduction of scenario-based calculations to account for the multiple courses of possible action was more than just a conventional starter. It was a gamechanger.
By 1972 when the book “The Limits to Growth: A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the Predicament of Mankind”[1] was published this Club had grown to around seventy members of 25 nationalities (by rule the Club cannot be more than 100). What unites them? Their guiding belief that the key issues confronting humanity are so complex and interconnected that traditional institutions and policies are no longer able to handle them or even comprehend their entire scope. So then they came up with “The Project On The Predicament of Mankind” whose goal was “to examine the complex of problems troubling men of all nations”.
This project was then put in a publication entitled “Limits to Growth: The Project on The Predicament of Mankind”. The original one published in 1972 insistently urged humanity to act. Its evocative and almost ominous description of the effects of exponential growth when faced with limited resources is still as perceptive today as it was then: continual economic and demographic growth will hit the limits of naturally provided resources and very likely lead to overshoot collapse and a radical decrease in the standard of living for the majority of people accompanied by international crises conflicts and catastrophes.
By then topics in this project already included the loss of faith in institutions [meaning you cannot lose faith in your government] inflation monetary and economic disruptions and the degradation of the environment. These are what the Club of Rome calls “world problematique”.
What is interesting is that in a Thames documentary aired in 1973 on this Club of Rome: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=mGZKu_0KK9s&list=PLATH7hh4gqVPw2EfrHI0I_iAMvINl17gf)it is explained that only through complete control of societies can we avoid catastrophe and that the coming revolution should be planned.
I will talk about this in more detail in my next blogs.
[1]The Limits to Growth. A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. (donellameadows.org)