The concept of the "golden billion" - the prerequisites and consequences
The end of 2011 for the Russian Federation was crowned with the publication by Rosstat of the data of the last population census (2010). The results caused quite a heated discussion in the media and on the Internet forums. Rosstat was accused of all sins: from negligence in conducting the census to outright deception. In addition, when the birth and death rates for ethnic Russians were independently calculated, the situation turned out to be much worse: the number of Russians in historical areas of residence continues to decline rapidly due to extinction.To believe - Rosstat or independent experts - a personal matter. But the official figures are far from ideal: despite the contested rates of rising birth rates and declining mortality, there is a clear picture of depopulation (aging population, growing imbalance in the ratio of men and women, increasing the number of widows and single mothers). Long-term demographic forecasts are also alarming: polls showed the unwillingness of young people to acquire families and children (the majority plans one child, and even then postpones his birth for an indefinite period).
Many experts, justifying themselves, nod to the West: similar phenomena of fertility decline and depopulation are characteristic of all developed countries. Of course, it is nice to get on the list of developed countries, at least for this, even if not very successful indicator. But in the countries of the former USSR, demographic indicators have a significant feature that received the tragic name of the “Russian (Slavic) cross”: the decline in birth rate goes hand in hand with an increase in mortality, so that the curves of increasing mortality and declining birth rates form a gloomy figure of the cross on the chart.
Such a picture evokes the forgotten concept of the “golden billion”. This theory was a logical continuation of the theory of Malthus, who predicted the death of mankind from overpopulation due to lack of resources for survival. In the middle of the last century, the myth of overpopulation frightened the civilized West so much that the struggle against overpopulation was put up as the capital in the world-famous society "The Club of Rome", and the methods of this struggle did not fit into the humanism proclaimed by the same society and living on the planet. The anti-human essence of many of the stated postulates gave rise to the creation of the theory of the “golden billion”. The population of the highly developed countries of the EU, the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia will allegedly be included in the “golden billion”, while the rest of the rest will be a raw materials appendage, a supplier of natural resources and cheap labor. To ensure the comfort and safety of the “golden billion”, severe control of the rest of the larger, but “not developed” part of the population of our planet is necessary, both biological (control and birth control) and sociocultural (every kind of inhibition of scientific, economic and spiritual development).
The theory of the “golden billion” was not once criticized because it was quite heterogeneous and contained unprovable elements (an unconfirmed statement by Margaret Thatcher that the population of the USSR should be reduced to 15 million, notes by the former CIA director and much more).
However, it should be remembered that the theory of the “golden billion” was created on the basis of an unambiguous interpretation of the statements of people who take on the task of solving the global problem of future life on Earth. The problem is that the philosophical platform of the Club of Rome and his followers (Potter's bioethics and others) has become a variety of versions of popular in the West utilitarianism. This philosophical trend is less suitable for creating a meaningful ethical theory, since it has at least two major drawbacks.
First, the anthropological basis of the philosophical concept is so weak that it is unable to determine more or less clear distinctions between humans and animals. That is why the theory of utilitarianism was adopted by environmentalists of all stripes, proving the same right to life for all living things. Theoretically, this sounded very beautiful, but in practice many Western researchers led to the sad conclusion: “Man-hating becomes a measure of biocentricity of modern ecological movements”.
Secondly, the value of life is not determined by itself as an axiomatic value, but based on the balance of pleasure and suffering. A life rich in pleasures is subject to greater protection (this postulate itself became the basis for the concept of the “golden billion”). A life in which suffering prevails does not deserve protection at all. Hence, paradoxical conclusions - in the West they protect the life of stray animals, and the life of a child in a coma remains unprotected (since, for obvious reasons, he does not experience visible pleasures).
It is very characteristic that the movements generated by these theories acquire, on our Slavic soil, a particularly ugly look. For example, the protection of stray animals. In no developed country, stray dogs are not allowed to be on the streets of cities, while in the Russian Federation and Ukraine there is a program for catching, sterilizing and “moving back to the habitat,” that is, on the street. This know-how is complemented by a purely Slavic tendency of officials to theft and the ability to organize their own feeders from any undertaking (it’s not a secret that most of the funds allocated for the arrangement of stray dogs are simply being stolen) by Slavic kindness to stupidity (stray puppies are grown up thanks to to the efforts of grannies, who allocate a little bit of their “miserable dogs” from their beggarly pension) and the Slavic ingenuity (homeless people got the hand to feed and tame stray dogs, using them for their own Keep). As a result of all the above, flocks of stray dogs live in large cities of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, which pose a considerable threat to the population both in epidemiological (rabies, helminth infections) and in purely physical terms (attacks, bites, and deaths are frequent). From time to time, the municipal authorities and desperate loners make attempts to reduce the livestock of dogs, which is accompanied by loud cries of indignant cultural elite - both their own and western. It is characteristic that the death from dog bites of people, even children, illuminated in the press, does not cause any response from the humanists.
Another example of the transfer of Western theories to our soil is the recently appeared so-called “child free” movement (child free), the meaning of which lies in voluntary childlessness. Despite its unnaturalness and asociality, it found its followers in our country too. Moreover, "our" his supporters more aggressively promote voluntary childlessness, in every way discrediting motherhood and childhood. Thus, the protection of the norm from pathology becomes relevant. I agree with the director of the Institute for Demographic Research, Igor Beloborodov, that students first need to be taught not the rules of contraceptive use, as is done in family planning classes borrowed from the West, but the art of creating and strengthening a friendly full-fledged family, propagandize national traditions and universal values.
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