Guilt by Association? A Personal Disclaimer

Every movement that builds strength must of necessity become a coalition of individuals and groups of overlapping but not identical agendas. We take from each that which is beneficial to our aims and attempt to discard that which is not, yielding as little of our core values as we can.

In the fight to achieve population stabilization, I have formed important contacts on three continents with many impressive individuals. Perhaps the most impressive, the one who has made landmark contributions to population literature, has also harboured disturbing ideas. While everyone brings different perspectives and sometimes irreconcilable arguments to the table, most differences are differences of emphasis.

There is a strand of American anti-immigrationism, however, where the differences are too fundamental to be treated as legitimate dissent within the movement. I refer to the anti-semitism, Holocaust-denial and assertions of African-American intellectual inferiority that are found in certain quarters of the American movement.

My name has been associated with these elements. Why?

For the reason that some of the people who have espoused these odious and preposterous views have also articulated intelligent and valuable positions on population issues. It is possible for brilliance and idiocy to co-exist in the same brain. You can be a mathematical genius and believe in astrology at the same time. Or a Mensa member who believes in UFO abductions.

For the record, I reject anti-semitism and the concept of racial inferiority, and most assuredly I do not deny that six million Jews were murdered by Hitler's regime.

At the same time however, I reject any attempt by left-wing McCarthyists to bully me into dissociating myself from anyone with abhorrent opinions. I dissociate myself from ideas, not people. I will vigourously challenge those ideas which I judge to be wrong and maintain a productive dialogue regarding those matters where consensus exists.