Less of Us ~ The historical and ongoing errors of The Limits to Growth

The back cover copy of the celebrated book, The Limits to Growth, by Donella H. Meadows, et al. begins as follows: 

When each of us decides to buy something, we first consider the price. Yet society at large has long bought the idea of continual growth in population and production without adding up the final reckoning.

"The final reckoning" sounds a little terrifying, doesn't it? The Christian often thinks of "the final reckoning" as the Last Judgment: that moment when the human soul stands alone before Christ, the Just Judge. All his faith, thoughts, and deeds are weighed in the balance at that instant, and the final eternal destination of his soul is determined. But this is not the kind of reckoning Ms. Meadows and her co-authors are considering. Good materialists that they are, theirs is a much less metaphysical kind of reckoning. 

The copy continues:

Now a team of MIT scientists, with the aid of a giant computer, has completed a study of the future if present growth continues. Their inescapable conclusions are beyond anyone's grimmest fears. Possibly within as little as 70 years, our social and economic system will collapse unless drastic changes are made very soon.

Again, terrifying, right?

Can you guess when The Limits to Growth was written?

Answer: 1972.

The phrase "with the aid of a giant computer" should have been the give away.

This book was one of of a series of very highly touted and extensively promoted works, like Paul Erlich's Population Bomb, that predicted that humanity was only a few scant decades away from total annihilation unless immediate, drastic changes were made to our economic and social systems. 

Does that sound at all familiar? If you've been reading this blog semi-regularly, it should.

The same class of literary, scientific, corporate, and cultural anointed ones are saying the same things today that they did in 1972, but with extended time frames, of course. I guess the human race has been given an extension for good behavior—another 20 years before the damage we are doing becomes irreversible; another 50 years before complete and total destruction is assured. Conveniently, those spaces of decades are beyond the frame of most people's memories and lives. So the expounders of catastrophism are rarely, if ever, called to account for their errors.

Among the anointed class and their followers, catastrophism is perpetually popular. Prophets of Doom are never without an audience.

Now consider the types of immediate changes that are commonly demanded by the high priests of catastrophism if we are to avoid the inevitable materialist apocalypse. In The Limits to Growth, the solution is the attainment of "planetary equilibrium." This is to be brought about by reducing industrial output, reducing demand for raw materials, and other strategic reductions both numerous and varied. But all of these solutions are predicated upon the reduction of one particular resource which, if not reduced, will scotch the whole deal:

The number of human beings.

We are the problem. The ultimate solution is: less of us. 

Note that the solution is never less of the anointed ones. 

This final solution has been spoken sotto voce by the anointed ones for decades now. Recall the Georgia Guidestones monument which stood in Elbert County, Georgia. The very first precept carved into this enigmatic monument urged mankind to "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature."

Of course, that would require the reduction of 95% of the Earth's current population.

Even if the Georgia Guidestones were blasted to pieces by a vandal in 2022, this extreme reductionist concept has not disappeared—far from it. If you look carefully at the hottest of hot button issues being pushed loudly and incessantly by the wise sages in Brussels and northern Virginia even to this day, every one of them has the ultimate side effect of — less of us. For example:

• Climate change: The entire climate change theory begins and ends with the thesis that humanity is a scourge on the planet, and ultimately the only way to save the oceans, the rain forests, the prairies, wolves, owls, ocean sunfish, caracals, skinks, and bird-eating spiders is — less of us.
  
  
• The rainbow agenda is predicated upon the idea that sterile sex acts are the moral equivalent of the procreative act between husband and wife. If you have ever wondered why such unnatural acts are pushed with such unrelenting ferocity even upon the youngest of children in schools, here is your answer. Such acts, if practiced widely and exclusively, can not result in more of us.
  
  
• The unending push for universal contraception and abortion on demand without limits results in much less of us. Abortion alone has resulted in over 60 million less of us since The Limits to Growth was written.
  
  
• The ongoing fanatical campaign to mandate that children receive as many vaccines as early as possible seems to run contrary to this thesis. It also blatantly contradicts the perennial slogan of the pro-abortion movement: "My body, my choice." On the surface, vaccination campaigns which can save millions from potentially deadly viruses seem like they would work against the goals of The Limits to Growth. And indeed, prior the the 1970s, that may have been the case. But within the past 40 years, the number of vaccines mandated or pushed by government, medical, educational and cultural orgs has exploded while the overall health of Americans has progressively declined. Add to this occasional slips by population control obsessives like Bill Gates who said that if we do a really good job on vaccines, we could reduce population growth by 10-15%, and recent scholarship pointing to higher miscarriage rates associated with the COVID vaccine (here and here), and suddenly the unremitting vaccination efforts morph into yet another path to making sure there will be less of us.
  
  
• Trans-kids. Perhaps the most lunatic obsession of the political and cultural anointed ones over the past decade has been the push to make the medically-assisted destruction of one's genitals into a childhood fad. If you're following me on the above points, then the rationale behind the spread of this social virus should be obvious: if you make yourself into a eunuch or otherwise sterilize yourself as a child, you can't make more of you. And even if you come to your senses later in life, it will be too late.
  
  
• Finally, there is euthanasia which is being embraced throughout the West at a depressingly rapid rate. Touting the practice as a voluntary end to suffering, the proponents encourage the elderly and disabled not to be a burden on their families. It's worth pointing out that the burden, such as it is, would be much more easily handled if parents had more than zero or one children, and said children had more than zero or one grandchildren. In Canada alone, which established euthanasia under the MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) program in 2016, nearly 100,000 Canadians have been put down—over 5% of all deaths in that God-forsaken realm which is doing an excellent job making sure there will be less of them to burden their burgeoning population of newcomers.

There have been a few pockets of resistance to the mindset promoted and embraced by the authors of The Limits to Growth and their ilk. 

The Catholic Church took the lead in opposing this demand for childless sterility early on with the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968, a truly prescient document that was released to much chagrin four years before The Limits to Growth was published. The Church's effort seemed to thrive for the next several decades, but has lost steam over the past 15 years. This is thanks in large part to a Vatican that can't get out of its own way when it comes to promoting the Culture of Life. Today, Catholics are faced with a situation where even the Pontifical Academy for Life, established by Pope Saint John Paul II, features fellows who publicly dissent on contraception, abortion and other long-established Church teachings on sexual ethics. Until prelates rise to leadership who are willing to promote actively the Church's perpetual teachings on these questions, and purge our institutions of the "less of us" mentality, the Catholic Church will remain on the sidelines at best. 

While all this reductionist navel-gazing is going on in the West, the Islamic world has largely rejected this approach, and the results over the past 100 years are stunning. As one example, Turkey's authoritarian president Erdogan regularly calls out contraception as the equivalent of treason and urges Turkish families to embrace three or more children. "One or two (children) is not enough. To make our nation stronger, we need a more dynamic and younger population. We need this to take Turkey above the level of modern civilizations,” Erdogan has said. “In this country, they (opponents) have been engaged in the treason of birth control for years and sought to dry up our generation." Despite this rhetoric, Turkey's fertility rate has declined over the past 20 years, a situation which Erodgan calls "a disaster." Even so, Turkey's population growth continues to outpace that of every large European nation.

A quick look at the statistics shows where this is all heading:

The combined population of the UK, France and Italy in 1926 was about 125 million.
The combined population of Egypt, Iran, and Turkey in 1926 was about 40 million.

Today in 2026, the combined population of the UK France and Italy is about 194 million.
Today in 2026, the combined population of Egypt, Iran, and Turkey is about 289 million.

Those three large European nations had roughly three times the population of those three large Muslim nations, but are now on a trajectory to have half the population in a decade or two.

For an even more stark contrast, Spain currently has a population of about 49 million. The country of Yemen on the Arabian peninsula, by contrast, has a population of 43 million. When The Limits to Growth was written, Yemen had a population of about 8 million.

Keep in mind that these stats do not take into account the large numbers of non-native immigrants living in European countries today, many of whom are Muslim.

Though the West whole-heartedly embraced the ludicrous alarmism of works like The Limits to Growth, the results of this unfathomably foolish strategy do not appear to resemble anything like the envisioned planetary equilibrium. 

Meanwhile, the Islamic world has largely rejected the dire warnings of the catastrophists which they categorize correctly as Western imperialism. They are also smart enough to understand that the catastrophist idiocy of the West will be a boon to them in the future. If you doubt that, do a quick search for Islamic scholars and imams who say the quiet parts out loud. Erdogan in Turkey isn't the only one preaching the ultimate Islamic victory via demographics.

As author Mark Steyn says on a regular basis, "The future belongs to those who show up for it."

If you're wondering why the anointed elites in the West are increasingly cozying up to Islam, here is your answer. In their short-sightedness, they believe that they will be able to remain leaders by welcoming and enriching the masses of Islamic newcomers who are surging into Western countries. But our modern anointed ones are as wrong about that as were their intellectual progenitors in The Limits to Growth. What many of them don't realize is that the Great Satan that is frequently denounced by Islamic political and religious leaders is actually them—the Western intellectual class, the political and cultural elite, the ideological colonialists (as Pope Francis called them), the champions of diversity and intersectionality: the soulless secular Left in the West. 

The Islamic crocodile won't even do the Western anointed ones the favor of eating them last.

As for the rest of us, it appears that many, even among Catholics, have been taken in by the toxic rhetoric to be found in works like The Limits to Growth. The inevitable result will be less of us, too. 

What needs to happen is that the ideological errors which have grown out of works like The Limits to Growth need to be repudiated and discarded by the West immediately. 

A return to the philosophy of Humanae Vitae would change everything in a generation.

"For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil." ~ The relationship between idolatry and societal chaos according to Sacred Scripture

The Pachamama idol as it appeared in the Vatican gardens during
the Amazon Synod, October 2019.

"The beginning of fornication is the devising of idols:
and the invention of them is the corruption of life."
Wisdom 14:12

We live in an age when, once again, the words of “Second Coming” by Yeats seem prophetic. The centre is not holding. Anarchy is loosed upon the world. The ceremony of innocence is drowned.

But let’s be honest. Based on what we Catholics have witnessed within our very Church over the past several years, none of this comes as a surprise. As I wrote in a previous article, past ages of the Church have understood that when there is chaos and confusion in the Holy See, there will be chaos throughout the Church and, indeed, in the whole world.

In reading Sacred Scripture with my family the other day, the passage above from the Book of Wisdom stood out. It should be remembered that the Book of Wisdom, sometimes called “The Wisdom of Solomon” is part of the Deuterocanonical literature included in the canon of Sacred Scripture by Catholics and Orthodox and Eastern Christians but rejected by many Protestants. Of this book, Saint Augustine opines:  

“For two books, one called Wisdom and the other Ecclesiasticus, are ascribed to Solomon from a certain resemblance of style, but the most likely opinion is that they were written by Jesus the son of Sirach. Still they are to be reckoned among the prophetical books, since they have attained recognition as being authoritative.” [Augustine: On Christian Doctrine, Book II, Chapter 8]

More modern scholars have speculated that the Wisdom of Solomon was written in Greek in Alexandria during the first century BC. The author most likely invoked the name of Solomon to better catch the attention of his Alexandrian Jewish audience. Given what we know of Alexandria’s reputation in antiquity as not only a center of learning and scholarly dispute, but of grotesque moral depravity, frequent mob violence, insurrection, and lynchings, it is likely that the Wisdom of Solomon was written as an attempt to recall the Jews of that city to the proper conduct in both human and divine affairs.

To that extent, the Jews of Alexandria—as an alien minority in a perverse and dangerous world—may serve as a mirror to faithful Catholics navigating within the greater post-Christian West today. It is in that context that we read the following passage from the Wisdom of Solomon within which the above quote may be found:

And from the beginning also when the proud giants perished, the hope of the world fleeing to a vessel, which was governed by thy hand, left to the world seed of generation [This, I assume, refers to the Ark of Noah]. For blessed is the wood, by which justice cometh [This appears to be a prophecy of the Cross of Christ].

But the idol that is made by hands, is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: he because he made it; and it because being frail it is called a god. But to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike. For that which is made, together with him that made it, shall suffer torments.

Therefore there shall be no respect had even to the idols of the Gentiles: because the creatures of God are turned to an abomination, and a temptation to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise. For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life. For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be forever. For by the vanity of men they came into the world: and therefore they shall be found to come shortly to an end. [Wisdom 14:6-14]

Further down in this chapter, the prophetic author of Wisdom scribes a passage that could apply to our own times as easily as it did to his:

And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but whereas they lived in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace. For either they sacrifice their own children, or use hidden sacrifices, or keep watches full of madness, so that now they neither keep life, nor marriage undefiled, but one killeth another through envy, or grieveth him by adultery: And all things are mingled together, blood, murder, theft and dissimulation, corruption and unfaithfulness, tumults and perjury, disquieting of the good, forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder in marriage, and the irregularity of adultery and uncleanness.

For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil. [Wisdom 14:22-27]

I would encourage you to read the entire passage here. 

When doing so, please remember to pray for those prelates who have been led astray by the prince of this world and his idols, especially those who have, in their worldly arrogance, dared to set an abomination of desolation in the holy places. They have it within their power to purge the corruption which has entered Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church—tomorrow if they wish. May the Holy Spirit inspire them to do so.

I tremble to consider how they will stand before the Just Judge if they fail to repent during this life and continue to lead their flocks so wantonly to destruction.

“What wonder that the whole world was prey to disturbance and confusion?” – Fulcher of Chartres on the relationship between dysfunction in the Holy See and disasters in the world

Scene from the Apocalypse from an illuminated manuscript, ca. AD 1430.

If the world is a complete disastrous mess, blame the Catholic Church. 

Throughout history, this aphorism has popped up with some frequency and in various forms. And while this condemnation has frequently been issued by those of an anti-Papist stripe, it has just as often been uttered by devout Catholics themselves, even saints and popes. How is this possible, you ask? Well, let’s check in with Fulcher of Chartres who in AD 1105 penned the quote that may be seen in the image at the beginning of this post:

“What wonder that the whole world was a prey to disturbance and confusion? For when the Roman Church, which is the source of correction for all Christianity, is troubled by any disorder, the sorrow is communicated from the nerves of the head to the members subject to it, and these suffer sympathetically."

Fulcher was a French priest who took up the cross of the First Crusade in the late 11th century AD. He would later become the chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne, who would later become the first King of Jerusalem. Fulcher is best known to history for his work, The Deeds of the Franks and the Expedition to Jerusalem, a first-hand chronicle of the great events of his age. Having apparently witnessed everything from the Council of Clermont where the Frankish knights first cried, “Deus vult!” to the re-conquest of Jerusalem and events beyond, Fulcher’s work is among the most valuable accounts of the early crusading era. 

Click for more info.

Let's dip into that work and look at the context of the above quote. All of the quotes from Fulcher in this post are taken from August Krey's excellent compilation, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants. 

Near the beginning of his work, Fulcher records the situation in Europe prior to the Crusade, and in particular notes the chaotic situation of the Holy See which was beset by an anti-pope who was the darling of great political powers, particularly Henry IV, Emperor of Germany. Fulcher writes: 

But the devil, who always desires man’s destruction and goes about like a raging lion seeking whom he may devour, stirred up to the confusion of the people a certain rival to [Pope] Urban [II], Wibert, by name. Incited by the stimulus of pride and supported by the shamelessness of the aforesaid Emperor of the Bavarians, Wibert attempted to usurp the papal office while Urban’s predecessor, Gregory, that is Hildebrand, was the legitimate Pope; and he thus caused Gregory himself to be cast out of St. Peter’s. So the better people refused to recognize him because he acted thus perversely. 

Wibert would be known to history as anti-pope Clement III. Fulcher continues: 

After the death of Hildebrand, Urban, lawfully elected, was consecrated by the cardinal bishops, and the greater and holier part of the people submitted in obedience to him. Wibert, however, urged on by the support of the aforesaid Emperor and by the instigation of the Roman citizens, for some time kept Urban a stranger to the Church of St. Peter; but Urban, although he was banished from the Church, went about through the country, reconciling to God the people who had gone somewhat astray. Wibert, however, puffed up by the primacy of the Church, showed himself indulgent to sinners, and exercising the office of pope, although unjustly, amongst his adherents, he denounced as ridiculous the acts of Urban. 

But in the year in which the Franks first passed through Rome on their way to Jerusalem, Urban obtained the complete papal power everywhere, with the help of a certain most noble matron, Matilda, by name, who then had great influence in the Roman state. Wibert was then in Germany. So there were two Popes; and many did not know which to obey, or from which counsel should be taken, or who should remedy the ills of Christianity. Some favored the one; some the other. But it was clear to the intelligence of men that Urban was the better, for he is rightly considered better who controls his passions, just as if they were enemies. Wibert was Archbishop of the city of Ravenna. He was very rich and reveled in honor and wealth. It was a wonder that such riches did not satisfy him. Ought he to be considered by all an exemplar of right living who, himself a lover of pomp, boldly assumes to usurp the scepter of Almighty God? Truly, this office must not be seized by force, but accepted with fear and humility.

Fulcher is by no means the first to condemn the intrusion of worldly politics into the nomination and election of popes. Recall that Hermias Sozomen, writing in the mid-5th century AD, offers a similar viewpoint when discussing the deposition of Pope Liberius by the Emperor Constantius II, the subsequent election of Pope Felix II, the return of Liberius creating a situation where there were two Popes in Rome. Sozomen denounced this occasion and mentions that having two men occupy the seat of St. Peter is a sign of discord and is foreign to ecclesiastical law.

Similarly, when Vigillius participated in the unlawful political deposition of Pope St. Silverius in AD 536 and was later elected Pope while Silverius still lived in exile, his reign quickly descended into discord. War, natural disasters, famine, and death on an unimaginable scale due to plague followed all throughout his miserable reign. When he was later seized by agents of the Empress Theodora and put on a ship to Constantinople, the Liber Pontificalis claims that the Roman people threw rocks at the ship in which he was imprisoned, shouting: “Your hunger go with you! Your pestilence go with you! You have done evil to the Romans; may you find evil where you go!” And it did. Vigilius would spend over a decade in Constantinople as a veritable prisoner under intense pressure from the imperial court to alter Church doctrine. Finally, he would acknowledge: “I am receiving the reward for my deeds.”

Getting back to Fulcher, we next see how he connects disorder in the Church at Rome to catastrophic disorders within Christendom and indeed, the world at large, beginning with our quote from above:

What wonder that the whole world was a prey to disturbance and confusion? For when the Roman Church, which is the source of correction for all Christianity, is troubled by any disorder, the sorrow is communicated from the nerves of the head to the members subject to it, and these suffer sympathetically. This Church, indeed, our mother, as it were, at whose bosom we were nourished, by whose doctrine we were instructed and strengthened, by whose counsel we were admonished, was by this proud Wibert greatly afflicted. For when the head is thus struck, the members at once are sick. If the head be sick, the other members suffer. Since the head was thus sick, pain was engendered in the enfeebled members; for in all parts of Europe peace, goodness, faith, were boldly trampled under foot, within the church and without, by the high, as well as by the low. It was necessary both that an end be put to these evils, and that, in accordance with the plan suggested by Pope Urban, they turn against the pagans the strength formerly used in prosecuting battles among themselves....

Fulcher then commences his account of Urban II’s address at the Council of Clermont and the vast Crusading movement he inspired. This effort lasted nearly four centuries, and was still inspiring men of action even into the late 15th century.

By the time the Crusading effort completely petered out in the 16th century, the Church was rent by the rebellion of Protestantism and threatened by the scourge of resurgent Islam which, by this time, had annihilated the Eastern Empire forever and positioned armed forces at the very doorstep of divided Christendom. In frustration, a saintly pope of this time reportedly echoed Fulcher, saying: “All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.” He was fortunate enough to find enough men whose faith still burned hot, and inspire the Holy League which beat back the Islamic menace decisively at Lepanto in AD 1571,

It is perhaps apt to consider such things when reflecting upon the wretched state of the Church and the world in our own times. 

Entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels...

I recently came across an article from the Associated Press written by Peter James Spielman that is fascinating for one reason. Please read the first few paragraphs which I am pasting here so that it's not lost in case the AP pulls the original down at some point:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed [deleted text].

Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco- refugees," threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.

He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations, Brown told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.

Read the full article at this link: U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked

The article is intriguing because of the [deleted text] above. Can you guess what goes there?

Here it is: "by the year 2000." This article was written in 1989.

It seems to me that articles exactly like this have been written hundreds if not thousands of times in the thirty years since this story first appeared. Now ask yourself—how many entire nations have been wiped off the face of the earth? How many of these predictions of three foot sea level rises, new dust-bowls in the Midwest, the Maldives underwater, etc. have come to pass? Answer? None.

It seems to me that one of the basic tenets of science is that when you are habitually wrong when posing outlandish hypotheses, you lose credibility as a scientist. And yet, the climate change catastrophists have continued to push this same theory that was first trotted out in the 1970s and 80s, the only difference being the terminology (climate change vs. global warming) and the volume level which is now amplified about 1000%.

Honestly, I can't take them seriously anymore. They've been singing the same tune for going on 40 years now and with the same, unsurprising solution -- transfer of wealth from ordinary people to national and supra-national organizations who are the only ones who can "save us."

It's long past time for people of good sense to stop listening to them.