The other example is from the Foreword to another book.  The foreword was contributed by His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He writes: "I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers that it was in danger of extinction.  What would be its feeling towards the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist...  I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus."*(Fleur Cowles, People as Animals, Foreword by HRH Prince Philip - UK Robin Clark Ltd. 1986 - reported in EIR special report Nov. 1994)  In a more recent statement, His Royal Highness is reported to have said, that "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation."*(As reported by Deutsche Press Agentur - DPA, Aug. 1988 -  reported in EIR special report Nov. 1994)

From the standpoint of a narrowly focused perception, the above statement makes sense.  If man were a worm and behaved like a worm, then one might reach a point when there are too many worms per acre.  Under these conditions, the global population limit is approximately 2 million people which corresponds to the world population typical during the paleolithic era with a hunter-gatherer technology of scavenging and gathering grains and fruits for a meager subsistence that limited human life expectancy to an average of 23 years.  At this level, the Malthusian theories apply fully, and probably did apply very forcefully.  In this era 55% of the people died before reaching the age of 14.  Life was hard, especially so once the demand for food exceeded the available resources.  At this age of zero-technology, the human species was held back to the level at which the ground could sustain them, as this is the case with all wild animal species today.

The simple fact that the world population is nearly 3000 times larger today, than it was when the earth alone supported man, indicates clearly that other factors are involved in supporting human existence than the dust of Mother Earth.  These decisive factors are all the outcome of man's creative intellect, and a human mind capable of complex scientific understanding, which together have placed human existence on a platform far above the realm where Malthusian theories apply.  Even mankind's first technology, the development of agriculture at the Neolithic era (10,000 - 3000 BC), enabled a five fold expansion of the human population on this planet.  By 1000 BC (the Iron Age), productive technologies had developed to the point that another five fold expansion in human population could be supported.  Today's technologies support a human population that is nearly 3000 larger than what the earth could support in the hinder-gatherer days.

Against this background, it is wise to enhance the development of man, rather than to scale human existence back to a primitive level of existence at which mankind can be managed once again like cattle.  This was the stage of the medieval period (800 - 1300 AD) where 95% of all people lived in poverty, toil, and slavery with an average life expectancy of 30 years.  But even this desperate period of the dark ages was sufficiently advanced in technological increases in the effectiveness in human labor to support a population a hundred times larger than the 'natural' population levels of the hunter-gatherer society where the theories of Thomas Malthus apply.

The strength of mankind is in moral, spiritual, cultural, scientific, and technological development.  This strength, however, is a threat to oligarchic practices.  Throughout the centuries, vast riches were drawn from slavery and associated looting, rather than from the expansion of wealth through the cultural, scientific, technological, and economic development of the nations.  The theories of Thomas Malthus apply perfectly to a world run as an oligarchic empire which inherently looses its power and importance in proportion to mankind's upwards development.  That is why the very notion of development has been so desperately fought against by the oligarchy for five hundred years.  That is why wars were created.  The course of history shows a relentless trend in this regard.

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Stories about  Love from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche