J. R. Ackerley wanted the human population to be reduced by three-quarters or so:
I have no animus against the human race, I simply want it painlessly but drastically reduced, for I don’t believe it will ever reduce itself. I don’t want nuclear war, it would destroy the animals and our treasures, which I wish to preserve. I want a beautiful plague, a human scourge, which would take off in a jiffy three-quarters at least of the entire population. . . . I can see no other solution to a doubled population . . . and the animals all gone. (Quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 312.)
At the time J. R. Ackerley wrote the above, the human population was about half of that of today. People have become a commodity. We would value individuals far more were there far fewer people. A world with just a few thousand remaining great apes and tigers and polar bears, largely because of runaway human breeding, is a world deprived of much joyous reason for wanting to live. Religion’s great part in this is why The Saunterer refuses to belong to a religion.
* * *
Zero Population Growth (ZPG) changed its name several years ago to Population Connection. According to it, the world population is 6,529,295,049 and the US population is 299,135,749. The Population Connection and EcoFuture contain news and discussions on the suppressed quality of living that comes from overpopulation.
* * *
For a literary account of having a dog as a friend, J. R. Ackerley’s book, My Dog Tulip, is uncommonly good.
For a brief biography of J. R. Ackerley, click here.
Comments