Yoshie Furuhashi:
> That's not just a trend in Russia but nearly everywhere in the world,
> very pronounced in Japan for instance. Late marriages and fewer
> children are in part in response to capital's offensive, in part in
> response to sexist discrimination, and in part women's simple desire,
> ability, and effort to live their own lives as they determine.
>
> We can see the falling birth rate as women workers' way of waging a
> slow and steady class struggle, without anyone -- even themselves --
> noticing it as such. Where would capital be without ceaseless
> economic growth brought about in part by increasing numbers of
> workers/consumers?
A few years ago there was supposed to be a crisis because there were too many people. Now there's supposed to be a crisis because there aren't enough people. But will or should capitalism, even imagined as a coherent, intelligent and willful entity, care? These days, there are many ways to advance production-consumption and aggressive acquisition besides burgeoning populations. War and imperialism have especially been industrialized. I haven't noticed, lately, anything like the religious and nationalistic natalism of yesteryear, and populousness seems to be for the lower orders and lesser breeds who are not only without the law but off the scope. It is true there are some things that human beings definitely do best, like provide objects for cannibalism, prostitution and torture, but even these can be mechanized, replicated and televised, so one doesn't even need very many victims.
-- Gordon