Merchants of Despair

December 19, 2011
In this look at the rise of “antihumanism”—an ideology that argues that humans are a cancer on the earth—scientist Zubrin (Energy Victory) charts the troubling shift from one’s “unalienable rights” and “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to forced mass sterilization, eugenics, and Nazism. Zubrin finds within Thomas Malthus the foundation for “justifying human oppression and tyranny.” From Malthusianism, he continues to Darwinism—“human compassion toward the unfortunate is not merely useless (as per Malthus) but actually morally wrong”—following the path eventually to eugenics. The book is replete with scientific studies and facts, though it’s Zubrin’s view on the people and history behind antihumanist movements that’s the most disturbing. Whether pointing out that the first Green Party was founded under the leadership of August Haussleiter, a former Nazi SS officer; that Fujimori’s genocide in Peru was funded by international aid; or that Qian Xinzhong was given the first United Nations Population Award (together with Indira Gandhi) after forcing thousands of Chinese women to abort their children, Zubrin paints a dark and disturbing picture of antihumanism that’s worth everyone’s time to read. Agent: Adam Keiper, the Center for the Study of Technology and Society.