Post

Kinectia wrote:

This is something I’ve always struggled with in NS - the automatic increase of a nation’s population over time. Kinectia self-identifies as a very small island, but our population still increases at a pre-determined rate. Our inability to control this metric has provided the incentive for a great deal of innovation in housing design and land use optimization, but most of our people would really rather have a lot less crowded living conditions.

More to the point - whether it’s desirable to limit population. If you wanted to reduce the population that would mean a reduction in the number of individuals. Which individuals would you prevent, turn away or terminate? What if some of those turned out to be people who would have contributed to some technological innovation that benefited all? What if they would have led social movements that improved the lives of many, by reducing oppression and poverty, increasing social justice and equality, developing real democracy and economic systems that value meaningful work for everyone? How would you decide where to place the population controls, and how to enforce them?

When you feel appalled by the rate of world population increase, you reduce people to interchangeable cogs in a machine. Every individual is unique and limiting population is therefore risky when you value diversity.

Edit:
My personal dedication to this point of view is challenged some days though, when my neighborhood becomes saturated in graffiti... or my RMB is inundated with spam posts.

Sums up my own feelings quite accurately on the subject, including my conflicted feelings about the growth of Forest as a region. At the risk of sounding like an old man shaking my cane at passing clouds, I'll say that I used to keep on top of unread RMB messages quite frequently, even though I didn't (and don't) post much. But these days, I'm definitely letting most of it go unread, and that bums me out a bit because I wonder what interesting and thought provoking topics might be buried in the red "156 unread message" icon now.

I recognize the contradiction in agreeing with our core value that Forest is open to all nations and also feeling frustrated with what's been happening as a result of becoming so populous. Same as I'm conflicted when I see another swath of undeveloped land in my town get that big white "we're going to build something here" notice (I wish green spaces to stay green), even as I also wish property values weren't quite so out of control so more of my friends could afford a house if they wish (which building more houses would ostensibly help with).