Thomas Robert Malthus was an English Economist and Cleric of the Anglican Church, during the late 1700s-early 1800s, whose work far transcended his own lifetime and context, to the point where his core beliefs and personal context have been unjustly stripped from his most famous theory. This theory being what we, in the modern day call “The Malthusian Disaster”, which is explained as Human overpopulation continuing to grow unchecked, via the increased ability to sustain themselves, would spread – as if a swarm of locusts – across the lands until all was stripped bare or laid to waste by environmental or artificial catastrophes. Equally important to this theory by Malthus was that such a disaster was “Divinely Imposed” as punishment from a disapproving God, at the inevitably increasing amount of “vice and misery”, which would – in his view – be inevitable and unavoidable rise of populations beyond their “normal” boundaries.
Not only was this theory controversial and muddled by events contemporary to his own time, but despite the popularity of Malthus’ writings and his theory with Academics even in our current day, people closer to his own time frequently – and correctly – criticized his disaster theory for its total failure to predict the Industrial Revolution. This, at the foundation is exactly what rapidly framed the Malthusian Disaster concept as an inherently pessimistic outlook, with a fixation on a doomsday outcome as the result of an “immoral straying from one’s purpose” scenario on a mass scale, at which point the gloomy view’s inability to perceive technological innovation rendering the prior era’s issues moot serves as its Achilles heel.
First and foremost, Thomas R. Malthus was an English Christian, whose belief system from top to bottom served to empower his Religious views as they intersected with his knowledge of economies at a time when his home country was fast approaching a period of rapid change that would eventually sweep across the entire planet. At present, his theory has been very commonly adapted across video games, comics, tv and streaming shows, movies, as well as social media, where advocates of his belief system both intentionally and unintentionally strip the roots of this theory from the context of their new media. Below I will give a few examples of how modern day Malthusians most typically depict their personal spin on the English Cleric’s own favored doomsday scenario.
Modern Day Malthusians-
Hollywood is perhaps first and foremost among the groups of people who frequently hold Malthusianist Beliefs, as well as portray them graphically in visual media as “inevitable” in our current time – just as the Cleric himself would – especially if you include the endeavors of major Corporate Media Industries like video games which also often parrots the same message. Due to the frequent Corporate stripping of the religious context and backdrop, this particular doomsday belief has largely been transmitted to countless unwitting viewers and players who unknowingly take the looming threat to heart and sometimes even end up couching it in the nihilism and hysteria that has gripped many Countries across the western world in our current day. Perhaps unintentionally, the myriad of popular Hollywood films, such as “The Day After Tomorrow”, have vividly depicted a much more rapid and overly dramatized version of natural disaster related doomsdays. This has doubtless, resulted in many who did not perceive the entire context, becoming fearful of the future in their own real lives.
Extending from such Corporate efforts is the Environmentalist movement, which in its most pessimistic forms, wracked by the big business take on the Malthusian Disaster, with many of those who are worst affected by it believing in a sort of Atheist Armageddon, or Revelations period. In line with this secular doomsday scenario is the theory of a looming catastrophe wrought most commonly by the “melting of the polar ice caps, and rising sea levels”, which – according to advocates of this theory – will result in the ultimate doom of Earth via a climate change-based catastrophe effect. Many people in positions of political power, such as Barack Obama, and countless speakers at the WEF (World Economic Forum) have given voice to this pessimistic outlook, and in turn stressed a need for vast, sweeping restrictions and changes to society on the global scale, which would ultimately result in hyper-centralized control landing squarely in the hands of a few among the elite class who seemingly seek to weaponize those afflicted by the fears stemming from the darker side of the environmentalist paradigm, likely for the elite’s own authoritarian fantasies. Thankfully, the more informed and responsible folk among the environmentalist crowd do not fall prey to what amounts to hysterics, and instead they advocate more for Human stewardship of the Earth, simply out of a sort of duty, rather than out of fear of some kind of looming disaster.
Comics and other drawn media these days will often parrot the same sort of message – which then makes it clear as to why some are so fearful of this theory in real life – which can contribute to a sort of climate change-based echo chamber. Wherein an individual becomes functionally inundated by all sorts of “Entertainment” media taking a preachy stance and having fictional characters lecture another about this feared end of days coming, or the actual onset of said doom. And yet, just like those who have predicted things like Y2K, or the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse, the Climate Catastrophe claims come and go, every so often, with many claims reaching viral status on the internet up until the prophesied time comes, at which point its passing is always heralded solely by crickets. And likely many of embarrassed claimants. But once again, just as cooler heads always prevail, so too does the march of technology, with the newly emerging Graphene tech which uses Carbon to create cheap and flexible construction materials. As someone who might adhere to the “Cyclical History” theory, today’s Malthusians will likely be just as blindsided by emerging tech advancements as their predecessors were.
Conclusion-
What we have analyzed here is just another example of another manifestation of the human condition, something each and everyone of us experiences at some point in our lives: uncertainty about the future. Humanity, all across the Earth, has long had a bizarre fascination with apocalypse scenarios, though it has most definitively crystallized within western cultures, before the time of Christianity’s emergence, but especially after it fully took root. It is easy to become swept up in the warnings of a looming doom, or the dubious ravings of the Pandora’s Box that is Social Media on the whole, but all who weather such storms eventually come through learned and wiser for it. One thing we all inevitably face is the fact that – more often than not – human beings end up “best guessing” their way through situations they find themselves in, and there is a definite tendency of individuals, groups and sometimes even entire societies to ascribe a vast and systemic meaning to things that are, in actuality, simple.
The end result is that, even in the hypothetical that the latest end of days theory does prove true in the long run, not one of us will ever be served well by giving in to panic. Even in the most dire scenarios, an individual is functionally at their best remaining as calm and collected as possible, which behooves swift and decisive action that can save lives. Yet with the countless failures of those who have prophesied our collective doom, over the course of thousands of years by now, History shows that life is best spent working on other endeavors. Such as one’s career, artistic and writing skills, music, or practical abilities, and one’s own health, both mental and physical.
As always, my Philosophical Analysis series is done explicitly within the context of analyzing things I see and experience, especially those which are widespread in modern day US Society, or at least even tangentially connected to it in some fashion. I looked back at my coverage of the Solar Eclipse post earlier today, and the things I mentioned above in this post came to mind, so I thought it prudent to bring to light my thoughts on the topic. I always seek to enlighten and to interact with things as they come, as input has proven crucial to my own learning throughout life, it would stand to reason that others could stand to benefit from exposure to the lessons learned by another.
Literature Ronin's Vigil 
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