by Troy Southgate
REDUCING the population
is one of the central planks of our decentralist strategy and it is
only right that we thrash out the details of this plan between us.
However, there appears to be a problem. Thus far, none of us have
satisfactorily explained just how we intend to carry out such a
process.
In the last issue of Alternative Green, Mike Shankland [The Population Problem, p. 8-9] expressed his concern that - despite being in favour of cutting the population - it may be difficult to achieve this objective ‘without compromising’ the rest of our programme. In his seminal text, To End Poverty: The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core [Alternative Green, 1997], Richard Hunt tells us that ‘In Britain there are about 33 million acres of farmland, excluding rough grazing. There are about 58 million people, about half an acre per person.’ [p.201] He also calculates that ‘a family needs about 8 acres to be self-sufficient. That means Britain could support a population of about 15 million self-sufficiently, without exploiting anyone else.’ [Ibid.] However, whilst Richard is correct to point out that cutting the size of the political unit is futile if no attempts are made to reduce the population, I believe that such a reduction is inevitable and, therefore, something which will happen naturally as part of an all-encompassing cosmological master-plan. Indeed, when during a recent telephone conversation I asked Richard to elaborate upon his theory, he put forward one or two additional examples of how to reduce the population; namely, cutting child benefit for the rich, opposing immigration, discouraging large families and offering support for abortion and contraception. Whilst I personally reject both abortion and contraception due to the fact that I believe them to be contrary to the Natural Order, I would go even further and suggest that all attempts to achieve political, social and economic decentralisation by reforming the present system are doomed to failure. Quite simply, it is out of our hands. Let me explain further.
According to the Revolutionary Conservative thinker, Oswald Spengler, human cultures and civilisations are purely organic in nature. Even more important is the fact that all great empires, civilisations and historical peaks are transitory and both grow and wither in accordance with the remorseless march of Time itself. In the words of Spengler, ‘the great cultures accomplish their majestic wave-cycles. They appear suddenly, swell in splendid lines, flatten again and vanish, and the face of the waters is once more a sleeping waste.’ [The Decline of the West, Munich, 1926, p.73] The Italian philosopher, Julius Evola, remarks upon this process when comparing American civilisation with that of Europe. Indeed, whilst America is far younger in terms of the fact that European civilisation has been around far longer than its more arrogant cousin, Evola believes that America is already in the final stages of decline: ‘The structure of history is however, cyclical not evolutionary. It is far from being the case that the most recent civilisations are necessarily ‘superior’. They may be, in fact, senile and decadent.’ [American ‘Civilisation’ in Further Thoughts of Julius Evola, The Rising Press, 2001, p.18] Edward Gibbon says much the same thing in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Chatto & Windus, 1960, p. 524-5]: ‘the demise of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.’ So what has all this to do with reducing the population?
My basic contention is that International Capitalism will eventually overreach itself with disastrous consequences, and, just like the seemingly indestructible civilisations of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the British Empire, is destined to come crashing down like the proverbial house of cards. In other words, attempts to reform the system will only prolong the inevitable demise of the system itself. Furthermore, whilst being very gradual in nature (allowing the most pragmatic individuals to pool their resources and create fresh alternatives on the periphery) the penultimate collapse of the bureaucratic core will have devastating effects on population levels. The State will become an irrelevancy and its disappearance will be followed by famine, disease and internecine conflict. Richard Hunt’s ‘grubby utopia’ will seem like a breath of fresh air once the local mafiosi, drug barons and criminal opportunists have taken advantage of the situation. Amidst burnt-out cars, empty factories and the smouldering ruins of the newly-slain technocracy, the dazed hunter-gatherers who remain will count their lucky stars that they got out whilst there was still time. Returning to Spengler: ‘At this level all civilisations enter upon a stage, which lasts for centuries, of appalling depopulation. The whole pyramid of cultural man vanishes. It crumbles from the summit, first the world-cities, then the provincial forms and finally the land itself, whose best blood has incontinently poured into the towns, merely to bolster them up awhile. At the last, only the primitive blood remains, alive, but robbed of its strongest and most promising elements.’ [p.251]
The population of the British Isles will not be significantly reduced either by halting immigration or by implementing a series of reforms pertaining to birth control. On the contrary, mankind is part of a perpetual cycle which is ultimately determined by extraneous powers beyond our control, although this should not cause us to shirk our responsibilities. According to Evola: ‘It is typical of a heroic vocation to face the greatest wave knowing that two destinies lie ahead: that of those who will die with the dissolution of the modern world, and that of those who will find themselves in the main and regal stream of the new current.’ [Revolt Against the Modern World, Inner Traditions, 1995, p.366] Under the circumstances, therefore, the best that we can do is to prepare for the inevitability of this fact.
In the last issue of Alternative Green, Mike Shankland [The Population Problem, p. 8-9] expressed his concern that - despite being in favour of cutting the population - it may be difficult to achieve this objective ‘without compromising’ the rest of our programme. In his seminal text, To End Poverty: The Starvation of the Periphery by the Core [Alternative Green, 1997], Richard Hunt tells us that ‘In Britain there are about 33 million acres of farmland, excluding rough grazing. There are about 58 million people, about half an acre per person.’ [p.201] He also calculates that ‘a family needs about 8 acres to be self-sufficient. That means Britain could support a population of about 15 million self-sufficiently, without exploiting anyone else.’ [Ibid.] However, whilst Richard is correct to point out that cutting the size of the political unit is futile if no attempts are made to reduce the population, I believe that such a reduction is inevitable and, therefore, something which will happen naturally as part of an all-encompassing cosmological master-plan. Indeed, when during a recent telephone conversation I asked Richard to elaborate upon his theory, he put forward one or two additional examples of how to reduce the population; namely, cutting child benefit for the rich, opposing immigration, discouraging large families and offering support for abortion and contraception. Whilst I personally reject both abortion and contraception due to the fact that I believe them to be contrary to the Natural Order, I would go even further and suggest that all attempts to achieve political, social and economic decentralisation by reforming the present system are doomed to failure. Quite simply, it is out of our hands. Let me explain further.
According to the Revolutionary Conservative thinker, Oswald Spengler, human cultures and civilisations are purely organic in nature. Even more important is the fact that all great empires, civilisations and historical peaks are transitory and both grow and wither in accordance with the remorseless march of Time itself. In the words of Spengler, ‘the great cultures accomplish their majestic wave-cycles. They appear suddenly, swell in splendid lines, flatten again and vanish, and the face of the waters is once more a sleeping waste.’ [The Decline of the West, Munich, 1926, p.73] The Italian philosopher, Julius Evola, remarks upon this process when comparing American civilisation with that of Europe. Indeed, whilst America is far younger in terms of the fact that European civilisation has been around far longer than its more arrogant cousin, Evola believes that America is already in the final stages of decline: ‘The structure of history is however, cyclical not evolutionary. It is far from being the case that the most recent civilisations are necessarily ‘superior’. They may be, in fact, senile and decadent.’ [American ‘Civilisation’ in Further Thoughts of Julius Evola, The Rising Press, 2001, p.18] Edward Gibbon says much the same thing in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Chatto & Windus, 1960, p. 524-5]: ‘the demise of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.’ So what has all this to do with reducing the population?
My basic contention is that International Capitalism will eventually overreach itself with disastrous consequences, and, just like the seemingly indestructible civilisations of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the British Empire, is destined to come crashing down like the proverbial house of cards. In other words, attempts to reform the system will only prolong the inevitable demise of the system itself. Furthermore, whilst being very gradual in nature (allowing the most pragmatic individuals to pool their resources and create fresh alternatives on the periphery) the penultimate collapse of the bureaucratic core will have devastating effects on population levels. The State will become an irrelevancy and its disappearance will be followed by famine, disease and internecine conflict. Richard Hunt’s ‘grubby utopia’ will seem like a breath of fresh air once the local mafiosi, drug barons and criminal opportunists have taken advantage of the situation. Amidst burnt-out cars, empty factories and the smouldering ruins of the newly-slain technocracy, the dazed hunter-gatherers who remain will count their lucky stars that they got out whilst there was still time. Returning to Spengler: ‘At this level all civilisations enter upon a stage, which lasts for centuries, of appalling depopulation. The whole pyramid of cultural man vanishes. It crumbles from the summit, first the world-cities, then the provincial forms and finally the land itself, whose best blood has incontinently poured into the towns, merely to bolster them up awhile. At the last, only the primitive blood remains, alive, but robbed of its strongest and most promising elements.’ [p.251]
The population of the British Isles will not be significantly reduced either by halting immigration or by implementing a series of reforms pertaining to birth control. On the contrary, mankind is part of a perpetual cycle which is ultimately determined by extraneous powers beyond our control, although this should not cause us to shirk our responsibilities. According to Evola: ‘It is typical of a heroic vocation to face the greatest wave knowing that two destinies lie ahead: that of those who will die with the dissolution of the modern world, and that of those who will find themselves in the main and regal stream of the new current.’ [Revolt Against the Modern World, Inner Traditions, 1995, p.366] Under the circumstances, therefore, the best that we can do is to prepare for the inevitability of this fact.
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