The salience of number-power: An idea whose time has come?

Abstract

This article is an attempt to provide a potted introduction to the broad subject covered by my book Human Population Competition. A Study of the Pursuit of Power Through Numbers (Lewiston, NY & Lampeter, Wales. The Edwin Mellen Press, 1998. Two vols. ISBN 0-7734-8372-1 & 0-7734 8374-8. 821 pp). This book and the article (briefly, in the latter case) en deavour to lift the heavy veil over the taboo subject of competition in terms of number-power between human individuals, families and other small groups, tribal groups, and so on, up to and including the largest societies yet known. In a deep historical and wide ecological, economic, and social context it investigates the various rationales, strategies, and tactics em ployed, and the extreme lengths to which many groups are prepared to go to gain the ascendancy over their rivals, active or putative, in terms of sheer number-power. They also discuss the success rates of these policies, the question whether Small is really Beautiful, takeovers and liberations, envi ronmental impact, carrying capacity, the human propensity to ignore or distort facts when they have unpleasant implications, and the tendency to wards irrational behaviour which makes it still more difficult for us to face and conquer difficult problems. The analysis ends with an attempt to show beyond a reasonable doubt that populations and resources must permanently be balanced against each other if a reasonable quality of life is to be ensured, that population compe tition tends to get in the way of solving this already very difficult task, and