How To Tell Your Parents That You Are A Malthusian

For years I concealed a terrible secret. A secret no one knew. Not my classmates, not my friends, not my siblings---not even my Mom and Dad. I tried to deny it. I tried to hide it. But I couldn’t keep it locked up inside me any longer. I sensed a building volcanic force of common sense that if not vented, would soon blow me apart. I had to come out of the closet. I had to let someone know. And I knew who needed to know most of all. I had to tell my parents that I was different. Different in a way that society still does not accept. I just had find the right words—and the right moment----to tell them that I was a Malthusian. I was smitten with a love for sustainability that dare not speak its name. But how could I break the news? There is no universal formula for making this scandalous revelation. After all, no two families are alike. Even those parents who have had suspicions that you believed that our species is breeding itself to extinction still feel shocked, sad or angry when confronted with an open declaration of your Malthusian convictions. Many parents have difficulty even talking about our dangerous population overshoot. Many have not come to terms with their own denial. Even more will argue, reflexively, that your Malthusianism is just a youthful “phase”. They might say that your ideological attraction is merely an adolescent “crush” for Thomas Malthus, Jack Parsons or Paul Ehrlich---a passing infatuation born of an inflated image of puerile perfection. You think you are in love with something real, but that reality is only an abstraction. They will assure you that you will grow out of it, and that you will embrace this growth, for all growth is good. Once you become involved with the opposite sex, you will forget all about your crusade for responsible family planning. But you must counter their predictable denial by telling them that you have known that you were Malthusian even before puberty. You just weren’t attracted to growthists. Tell them that you can’t be happy unless you find expression for your deviant environmental orientation. Tell them that you still love them. That you are still the same son or daughter they thought you were and that it is a measure of your love for them that you have been able to reveal such a dark secret to them at such a difficult time. They may insist that our orientation is a lifestyle choice, and that with prayer, Bible study, or reading George Monbiot and Sierra Club newsletters, you will find the strength to repudiate your empirically validated persuasion and return to the warm bosom of soft green environmentalism and its futile self-righteous fixation on reducing one’s ecological footprint by good clean green living. But you must make them understand that for you, Malthusianism was not a choice----you were just born with clear vision and independence of mind. You must tell them that no one would voluntarily risk the scorn and ostracism that Malthusianism typically brings. Tell them to think of the sheer isolation involved, and of the difficulty of finding other Malthusians to share your life with. Often times one suspects that a stranger at a party or in a restaurant, by some mannerism or conspicuously logical statement is a closet Malthusian seeking a like mind, but one can never be sure and making an overture carries an enormous risk. Tell them how important their love and acceptance will be in helping you to face these problems. Be patient with them. Remember, it took time for you to accept who you were, so it will likely take time for them to come to terms with our opposition to reckless global fecundity and the open borders mentality that encourages it. Realize that some of their anguish reflects legitimate concerns for your future. They may point out the difficult road that lies ahead for you if you form an intimate partnership with a cornucopian fool. In some states these mixed relationships may still be illegal, and if not, socially unacceptable----particularly in the Bible belt or in small rural localities. You must answer that you have considered these difficulties and that until now, rather than face them, you denied your true identity and even took growthists out on dates to cover up your intellectual integrity. But you could keep up the charade no longer. Assure them that no, this is not "all about sex”. It is about non-capitalist relationships and a love for sustainability. And that the love, trust and affection that they hoped you would find someday as a parent could still be found by adopting kids rather than conceiving them. Understand that at first, they may not be able to cope with an open and shameless physical display of your true affections. Until they come around to the permanence of your orientation, do not openly clap at a speech given by Bob Carr, Mark O’Connor or Jonathan Porritt. That could be fatally traumatic. Give them time. If, as the years pass, your parents still have difficulty making the adjustment to your coming out, you can refer them to a counselling service like “Sierra Clubbers Anonymous” (SCA) (http://www.rense.com/general89/sier.htm or http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com) or “Sierrans for a Sustainable U.S. Population” (SSUSP). They assist fake environmentalists who need to accept that immigrant-driven population growth is a key variable of North America’s environmental degradation and that the “P” cannot be left out of the “IPAT”equation (I=environmental impact x P (population level) X A (affluence or per capita consumption) X T(technology). We are proud Malthusians and we are part of the rainbow. Accept us because we ain’t goin’ away. At least until the coming mass die-off that is. Tim Murray May 2, 2010.