Living Within Limits - Chapter 1

The Challenge of Limits

For most of human history, the dominant worldview was that 'resources were limited, human nature was fixed, and spending beyond one's income was a sin'.  This 'gatekeeper' attitude lasted until 1600's, when everything changed.  Science and technology were the catalysts - thrifty thoughts were replaced with spending splurges.  Since then, mankind, now an optimistic creature, has adopted the 'limitless' worldview - the intoxicating belief that we will (always) be better off in the future, so therefore it is OK to over-indulge a bit right now.

Hardin argues that in western society, there is a population taboo;  as a result, the possibility of over-population, if it ever arises, is traditionally brushed off, and the subject diverted to more pleasant thought streams.  It was not until Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, that public awareness of the hazards of environmental limits began to develop.

In addition, prophets of over-population are often labeled as pessimists.  But is that accurate?  The first such misunderstood malcreant was one Thomas Malthus, the British economist who first wrote extensively of human population, and its effects on human poverty.  However, Malthus's goal, like Buddha's and Hardin's, is to identify the cause of human suffering, and to mitigate its effects;  Malthus is anti-poverty, not anti-population.