3. Jane and Boy
"Jane and I decided to have only one child and our boy, John, is now twenty-two and in his senior year at University of Chicago," says Godfrey, after he and Ali have finished a supper of tuna salad and toast - communist style -, which is to say, eaten from a single plate. Ali already knows some details of Godfrey's personal life from him previously.
"Why only one?" She stops abruptly. "Oh, please excuse my getting personal."
"Don't be shy, young lady. It is why I asked you in here. Gives me a chance to talk about things. Why only one child? We had a general reason and a personal reason to limit our baby-making to one. First, we take overpopulation seriously. We believe in a balance of life on Earth with lots of open living space for animals, plants and unpolluted standing space for inanimate things like rocks and lakes. Now, the world population is one and a half billion, already doubled in the last hundred years and set to take off like a hyperbole on a graph as soon as the War ends."
Ali decides to be a critic to bring out the argument. Actually she agrees with Godfrey. "But you and Jane are superior persons - intellectually, physically, morally. Don't we humans need more of you two? While you are responsibly limiting your birth, ain't the Kallikaks - you know the congenital idiots who are the majority in America and elsewhere - having 5 or more kids? What's gonna become of the world if that continues?"
Godfrey chuckles, "Miss, you are a real smart one. Well, I get your point but also I see its fallacy. You imply that numbers of people, growth of population, automatically confers benefits, in this case, brutal physical control of the Earth by the unintelligent because there are more of them." That may have been so in old, worse days with hordes of Huns or Mongols over-running Asia and Europe but today we are getting more and more - as that Hitler man calls them - wonder weapons: poison-gas, rockets, automated aircraft, and, soon, if my science reading and fiction serve me well, the ultimate bomb that will neutralize human hordes. It is a triumph of intelligence over brute power. So one highly intelligent new person will equal one thousand dumb previous generation."
"Wow!" Ali explains. Do you think it will come to that?"
"Yes," he replies quietly. But I am no Nostradamus predictor of future. I will leave details to future historians. One final word on that though. We need a striking reduction in human population. The final war using wonder weapons should accomplish that."
Ali is not finished with her critical questions: "But what about the so called economy of scale. I mean the economists are always advising growth, growth, growth and markets, markets, markets. An't it true that more people crowded into our living spaces means a bigger market and more profits and more trickle-down money for every one to be affluent with?"
Godfrey does not chuckle now. he looks grim. "Yes, that is Capitalism. It is an argument to appeal to short term greed at the expense of the next generations of all humanity and the good of the other life and non life on the planet. The people of the industrialized countries will become more unnecessarily, crassly affluent as population density increases but at the cost of living conditions for the whole earth and, in another hundred years with the U.S.'s winning the War and Capitalism triumphant, we will be living on hothouse Earth."
"You mean runaway global warming from the overpopulation's more intensive use per person of fossil fuels fueled by the increased affluence of increased numbers?"
"Precisely. And the ironic bad point is - the increased affluence that is coming shall be a crass trashing of our culture, of our happy way now of moderate living, of humane behavior." Godfrey throws up his hands. "But nothing to do about it now except to perfect one’s personal excellence and for us new people to stick together and work as best we can for a good, moderate, low populated world. That is why Jane and I only produced our John. He is going to be worth more than all of the Kallikaks."
Godfrey shifts. "But allow me to go to the other reasons that Jane and I only made one baby. Here is the personal."
"Shoot. I'm all ears"
"Alright, but how about some dessert? My friend, the 20th Century Limited chef, told me he's made perfect blueberry tarts and it goes perfectly with Oolong tea."
"Yeah, it's been too long since Oolong," quips Ali then sheepishly, "Oh excuse my rhyming; its my madness."
"A fine madness, I'd say Miss."
Godfrey rings for the porter to give the order.
To Continue, click 13.4 The Mixed Race Option
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