Are you FCP'ers familiar with Malthus? Hitchens frequently references the early 19th-century intellectual and socio-political thinker.
A short 02/11/1998 WSJ article regarding the late Julian Simon. Personally, I believe Malthus would be a bit disappointed to see where today's environmentalists have directed his treatise (An Essay on the Principle of Population). So it goes, so it goes.
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I make fun of Malthus every year about this time in Differential Equations. Apparently one of his schticks was that though in fat times the population grows exponentially, the fastest food production can grow is linearly. Hah.
Yeah, it kind of ties into a Darwinian type of logic legitimized (thru the Malthusian lens) with Christian-Divine intervention. God allowed populations to get fat and saucy, but He also established Natural checks (disease and famine) so as to keep the world in accord with itself (does that sound about right in non-mathematic/statistical jargon?). Eco-freaks love this shit.
AA, AI, or Pepe? Anyone else have a take on this fellah or are familiar? Still punchin' my way through the principle of pop (a little more difficult after a 10-hour work day). ~mft
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