a) The Malthusians assert that there is a disparity
between the geometric progression of the population and the arithmetic increase of food
resources. The Neomalthusians combine this thesis
with that of the right to individual sexual pleasure without the risk of procreation. The
Neomalthusian theses -- proposing contraception, sterilization, abortion, etc. as the new
"rights of man" -- are very frequently used as a deception, making the Malthusian
motive of those who consider strict control of the population a
"duty" as urgent as it is imperative.
These intertwined theses are spread throughout the
entire world by those who see their own interests served by them.
b) Poverty is not an accident of fate; nor is hunger. Surplus food, for example, has never been so abundant.
It is the same for life expectancy at birth, which had never been very high
anywhere in the world, and is now sharply increased. But there are serious problems of
distribution, not only in what concerns food resources, but also in agricultural know-how,
health, hygiene, the natural regulation of birth, etc. -- not counting corruption. What the
poor expect is that they be given aid to get out of their
misery, not that they be left to stagnate after having been "offered"
abortion and sterilization.
c) Mass sterilization of the poor, as it is actually
being practiced, is going to have terrible consequences. When they get old they will still
be as poor, but they won't have any children to count on
for assistance. They will be abandoned, and the violence done to them by society will
accelerate their death, as it has with street urchins who are left to die, with no one to
take care of them.
d) Presented today in a new wrapping, Malthus' theses
are more than ever an instrument for illusion on the part of all those reactionaries
opposed to every social reform.
The Malthusians of today are indoctrinating
international opinion by having it swallow the idea that poverty doesn't find its cause in
social injustice, or in economic failure, or in political incompetence, or in ideological
aberrations. According to them, poverty has its source in the dizzying proliferation of
poor people themselves.
It follows then, to the degree that this thesis, though
false, is inculcated and accepted as blinding evidence, true appeals for justice and
development may be ignored and the exploitation of the poor can be pursued without
scruples.
e) Malthus has thus become the standard bearer today for
all those who are an obstacle to social justice -- among men and among nations -- to universal
fraternity, equality, freedom for all, respect for the weak, the poorest, the handicapped,
the ailing, etc. For the Malthusians of today, the poor, the weak, the Blacks, the
Indians, etc. are despicable; equality of all men, the right of all to freedom, access of
all to material, intellectual and spiritual goods -- all these are inadmissible objectives
that must be fought against. To take care of the weak, to promote equal dignity for all
men upsets, according to them, the equilibrium willed by nature, which selects the fittest
and eliminates the weakest.
In summary, Malthusian ideas inspire the contemporary
version of morality -- naturalist and Nietzschean -- of the "lords". In this sense, these
ideas are totally incompatible with the Judeo-Christian ethic.
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