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Malthus Paradox

Thomas Robert Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population stated that populations growth will lead to famine and populations will decline[Error: Wrong macro arguments: "4911" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . Some scientists even predict a next mass extinction involving humans[Error: Wrong macro arguments: "4613" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] .

Anonther such doomsday scenario stems from the Club of Rome[Error: Wrong macro arguments: "4525" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . As in 1972 Meadows' book became quite popular, although the predictions did not fulfill, the Club of Rome tried a come back 30 years later with Limits to Growth reloaded[Error: Wrong macro arguments: "4601" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . In 2012 another decade later and GDP still on the rise worldwide and Meadows probably retired, the Club of Rome did not feel ashamed enough to issue a further forecast[Error: Wrong macro arguments: "4604" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] .

All this did not happen (yet) which I call the Malthus Paradox. Of course Malthus was a serious scientist and he was correct. But what he did not take into account is that other fauceirs were killed with increasing rate instead of humans, and human propagation is not checked by famine but by societies themselves controlled the growth of their population, birth control etc.

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Society's life cycle

As all fauceirs have a limited life span, this is true for societies a subset of social fauceirs too, of course. The life span of societies may vary from a cursory friendship up to dynasties that lasted thousands of years. This article is not about any specific society. Instead the article attempts to summarize general and abstract rule that characterize a social fauceir's life cycle.

A society's life cycle is divided into birth, growth, reproduction, and finally death. The similarity with a human's life cycle is not surprising. Societies comprise mostly human individuals as sub-fauceirs so they would inherit most of their properties including life cycle characteristics from human biology. The acceptance of a life cycle and death in particular has to overcome grave ideological obstacles. Each society is connected with certain believes, ideals, and even myths that many people feel worthwhile to keep. Sometimes they cannot let go and so it develop into so called generation problems, when the young refuse to maintain their parents traditions, or the company.

All those reluctant to throw overboard their ideology may be said killing a society is not about killing people any more it is restructuring a society and giving the people new perspectives. More about that under the term evolution of a societies life cycle, which is coming soon.

Birth

The society starts its existence when it is recognized as such. The exact data of birth of a society often is difficult to set. There exists no exact definition and it is even more difficult to give one as societies differ so widely. Soon after birth growth begins.

Growth

A growing society is still vulnerable but subsequently gains importance. Growth is mostly an accumulation of sub-fauceirs. Most of these in primitive societies have been people. In more evolved societies other forms of sub-fauceirs are abundant too. Those include social sub-groups, and all kind of rules that make the society stronger. Again there is no sharp divide between growth and the next phase in life cycle.

Reproduction

Reproduction is characterized by cessation of significant growth. The persistent production of fauceirs does not add further stability. So these new sub-fauceirs either become germs that inseminate other societies or develop into new societies. Some of the sub-fauceirs begin to degenerate and become parasites which initiates senescence and death.

Death

A society's death can come in several ways.

  • Dying of most of the people (This was typical mostly among primitive societies.)
  • A society failed in competition with other societies. (In less evolved societies this again involved killing of most of the members.)
  • A society's assets are eaten up by parasites.

Sometimes a combination of these is also possible. For instance

  • The Roman Empire died because of parasitism and the conquest of German tribes.
  • Medieval feudalistic societies were challenged by the growing power of merchants but the pest in Europe helped to accelerate this process.
  • The last German Emperor was removed when Germany lost World War I that killed many people. The same was true after WW2 when the fascist society died in Germany in some other countries. By contrast, in Spain, fascism withered for several years. Surely less people, a smaller portion of the populations, was killed and less infrastructure destroyed.
 
   

(c) Mato Nagel, Weißwasser 2004-2024, Disclaimer