Thanos and real life application by John Fleming https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f Why does the author connect Thanos' philosophy to real life policies? en-us 2021-04-12 15:20:33 UTC 2021-06-23 08:38:24 UTC hello@padlet.com Why does the author compare Thanos to Maltheus, British policy, and Eugenics? jfleming84 https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537984473 Thanos’ philosophy recalls the theories of the British political economist Thomas Malthus, who, in 1798, published his influential Essay on the Principle of Population. His argument, based on the observation that population was increasing in England in the 1700s, was that if people keep pumping out children, there will come a point when we won’t be able to produce enough food to feed all of them. That, he said, would lead to famine, disease, and poverty. The solution for Malthus, a minister for the Church of England, was to preach abstinence and delayed marriage to keep population growth in check — especially among the poor....Unlike Thanos, Malthus didn’t call for mass murder to deal with dwindling resources. But his theories did inspire questionable policies. In 1834, lawmakers in Britain amended a law designed to give money to the poor “based on Malthusian reasoning that helping the poor only encourages them to have more children and thereby exacerbate poverty,” Michael Shermer, an author and publisher of Skeptic magazine, writes in Scientific American. The same reasoning was used by some British politicians in the 1840s to justify not giving food aid to the Irish during the potato famine, says Alan Fernihough, a lecturer in economics at Queen’s University Management School. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Malthusian theories also provided a philosophical underpinning for racist beliefs and eugenics programs. His legacy lingers to this day]]> 2021-05-19 01:28:48 UTC https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537984473 What is the purpose of the author including examples of genocides and dictators? jfleming84 https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537988204 In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos clearly twists Malthusian teachings for his own blinkered purposes. Randomly disintegrating people resembles the strategies of dictators across history, says Jeff Nekola, a biologist at the University of New Mexico, who’s written about Malthus and economic growth. The examples abound: the Holocaust during World War II, the Khmer Rouge mass killings in Cambodia in the 1970s, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. “It’s the same evil solution that humans have been coming up with since the dawn of time. I don’t think it’s Malthus,” Nekola says of Thanos’ plan. “I think it speaks more of humanity.”
We can see a real-world example of Thanos’ plan in action by looking back at Europe during the Middle Ages, when 30 to 50 percent of the European population was wiped out, says Fernihough. The culprit in this case was disease: the plague killed millions between 1347 and 1351. The survivors did fare better: wages went up, food prices went down, and standards of living improved. But such a scenario wouldn’t work in today’s industrialized societies, where technology allows us to live exponentially better lives, Fernihough says — we’re far less burdened by finite resources. (For those same reasons, that goes for a technologically advanced Marvel Universe with spaceships and vibranium-backed super-tech, as well.) A society with lots of people can be beneficial in itself. For example, working together and exchanging ideas can foster innovation. “It forces people to think about the box,” Fernihough says. “If there was no such thing as population pressure in cities, no one would be looking at building skyscrapers.”


]]> 2021-05-19 01:30:45 UTC https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537988204 Why does the author include details about population control, etc? jfleming84 https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537990979 Jokes aside, what Thanos is worried about — overpopulation and resource scarcity — is very much a concern outside of the Marvel Universe as well. The world’s population is expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050, and climate change is going to cause essential resources like water to dwindle. Some economists are optimistic. Instating carbon taxes can reduce pollution, Weil says, and the world’s population isn’t projected to rise unchecked. Fertility has gone down almost everywhere in the world, according to the UN. But some scientists are worried. As populations grow and expand, animal and plant species are going extinct faster than ever. And if we keep exploiting our planet, at some point, something’s got to give. In a paper published in 2011, Nekola calculated that if we keep consuming as much energy as we do today and the world’s population hits 10 billion by 2050, our standards of living will equal on average those of Uganda today, where about 20 percent of the population live below poverty line.
“The point is, if there are 10 billion people, we know that there are a finite amount of resources on the planet. What is the standard of living you want to live at?” Nekola says.


]]> 2021-05-19 01:32:20 UTC https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537990979 According to the author, why is Thanos an important character for us? Do you agree? jfleming84 https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537993445 So while Thanos’ plan is absurd and pure evil, movies like Avengers: Infinity War can start conversations and make viewers think about these real issues that don’t touch superheroes (they’ll mostly be fine when the next Avengers movie comes out in 2019), but do have significant effects on us poor mortals. “When you come out of the theater and really think about, ‘Okay, this is a mad evil villain’s idea of a way to solve the problem,’” says Stutz. “How do we actually try to solve it?”


]]> 2021-05-19 01:33:49 UTC https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1537993445 https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1613288238 2021-06-18 00:27:59 UTC https://padlet.com/jfleming84/5xcjhio04k4bat4f/wish/1613288238