A no-doubt well-intentioned person was having a rant about how war should be “illegal.” That it is a crime. But their argument had a couple of serious problems. The first of these was that the causes of wars are not a consequence of any overpopulation.
There is a seriously problematic conceit here. The idea that, “This earth has more than enough to sustain this population of humanity.” That is a delusion often floated by “optimists.” But this population is burning the Earth’s habitability at both ends. The consequences of even this intensive resource and land use has been devastating and continues year by torturous year to degrade the ecology we utterly depend on for our survival.
When you put our population in perspective, for instance comparing the biomass of mammals, it is delusional to suggest that one species and its livestock would represent NINTY-SIX percent (96%) of the biomass of the entire Class of animal. We are egregiously overpopulated and nothing like this many of us is sustainable. And fighting over resources, fighting over forced migrations, fighting over privilege, is inevitable because we are animals competing for our survival. That doesn’t make war good or right. It just makes it another inevitable consequence of severe overpopulation.
We keep trying to solve the symptoms of overpopulation, because we absolutely do not want to acknowledge that root cause. In fact few topics are apt to attract more outraged abuse than acknowledging that we are overpopulated.
The second problem was suggesting that the aggressor and the victim are somehow inevitably equally in the wrong. This bothsidesism is obscene. Arguing that there is never a “righteous side and a “bad” side to these conflicts,” is victim blaming. And it is bullshit.
I heard some of this horrifying crap in 2022. People suggesting that the moral choice for Ukraine was to lay down their arms to “save lives.” However Ukraine is defending itself, and failing in that will result in genocide and more war. There should be nothing but contempt for the idea that defending your nation, could be in the same moral category as invading another country to seize their territory on some propaganda pretext.
And because there can absolutely be a righteous side and a “bad” side, we morally and practically NEED to do everything in our power to aid Ukraine in its defence. If we do not, then sooner or later it will be other Eastern European countries under attack. Chamberlain appeasement always generates MORE war.
You cannot fix this by telling everyone to just stop. To suggest such a thing betrays the discernment of a child.
