A social danger which should be foreseen and prepared for, because it hinders the onset of abundant living, is the uncontrolled expansion of population, more especially in the Far East. Such rapid growth will make the maintenance of peace between nations a harder task. It is ironical that the poorer classes should also and everywhere be the prolific classes! The less food, the more babies!--such seems to be mankind's strange maxim. It is still more ironical that the Japanese could have claimed that they needed more living space after having encouraged their people to be the most prolific in the whole world. With similar logic they tried the bandit-like method of stealing it by brutal violence. Less brutality and more birth-control would have been a wiser policy. While the human race persistently overbreeds itself, it will continue to breed some of the causes of war, unemployment, famine, and epidemics. With a world in such a tragic condition and such a doubtful future, it is hardly fair to bring more and more children into it. Both ethics and reason would indeed counsel that we bring fewer and fewer children into it. The notion that a people should breed prolifically was wisely inculcated by the religious law-givers of antiquity when the race was still in its infancy and the land was sparsely inhabited. But times have changed and such self-multiplication has become senseless. If nations whose lands which are already swarming with men, women, and children insist on increasing their number instead of decreasing it, what other consequences may be expected except more disease and more conflict? By reducing the size of their families, they will reduce the discomforts and miseries of many parents and more children.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 4 : World Crisis > # 76
