Text - 'Beyond Overpopulation'

"In our last appearance, we talked about the taboo against acknowledgement of overpopulation. Obviously, there is awareness of the negative effects of too many people, but no proper acknowledgement. No career politician, and therefore no government, can take responsibility for such a serious admission. Anyway maybe the situation has gone too far? That again is difficult to admit, since it would imply that humanity is, or soon will be, a failure. It is generally felt better to ignore that kind of honesty and look to humanity's immense powers of adaptation. Or simply to get on with one's life.

Before we take leave of overpopulation, it might be well to briefly consider the benefits
of increasing numbers of people. The benefits to business are clearly enormous, regardless of environmental cost. The immense pressure keeps everyone motivated. Entertainers can draw bigger audiences and sell more media products. More children bring hope and freshness to the dull grind of repetitive living, helping their elders to relive their youth. The presence of people everywhere ensures that no-one is left out. There may be more death and more sickness, but at least more people get to become doctors.

Romance conditioning urges reproduction regardless of context and consequences. Everyone is urged to get involved in sex as early as possible and, the genitalia being blind, you suddenly wake up in a world where there are far too many people for anyones good. Consider the protesting crowds in the cities, the hordes of starving people in Africa, the blockages and queues at airports and on roads— everywhere full up, and yet were still turning 'em out. If you take the overview, it doesnt seem awfully bright, does it?

So if nothing can be done to save the situation, as seems to be the case, we might have to wait for natural causes of one kind or another to take an interest in our collective dilemma. Because although we are arguably the most intelligent form of life ever to strut the planet, this is one problem we can't even face, apparently, let alone begin to solve. So, maybe were not so smart after all?

There are smart specialists who have studied how to measure intelligence. They can work out your IQ from the dizzying heights of their own. But seriously, to spend time measuring intelligence is surely a most unintelligent thing to do, unless we are trying to fit some poor soul into some boring little job and we want to see how quickly they're able to catch on and do simple tasks.

I put it to you: Who can possibly be qualified to measure the scope of intelligence?
Please consider the question 'till we meet again."