PRI Weekly Briefing: Out of the Mouths of Dwarves

Dear Colleague:
 
By now, many people have seen The Lord of the Rings, the masterful
cinematic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic novel about Middle Earth.
Thinning ranks of men, elves, and dwarves-along with a few brave
hobbits-battle the growing evil of orcs, goblins, and ringwraiths to a
triumphant conclusion.
 
Is this sheer fantasy? John Rhys-Davies, the actor who plays Gimli, the
brave-hearted dwarf, thinks that the movie holds important lessons for our
time. Mr. Rhys-Davies points to Europe's depopulation crisis, and the
cultural assault on Western Civilization.
 
If you would like to help the hobbits at PRI counter the forces of
depopulation and replenish the thinning ranks of humanity, please make a
tax-deductible donation at our secure website: https://pop.org/donate.cfm.
All donations (of any size) are welcomed and appreciated.
 
Steven Mosher
President
 
PRI Weekly Briefing
12 January 2004
Vol. 6 / No. 2
 
Out of the Mouths of Dwarves
 
One of the most endearing characters in the Lord of the Rings is Gimli,
son of Gloin, the plucky dwarf of the race of Durin. Gimli's resolve to
help save the world is temporarily dampened when he discovers that the
ancestral Dwarf city, Moria, along with all of its inhabitants, has been
utterly destroyed. He presses on, however, in service to the "free peoples
of Middle Earth."
 
According to actor who played Gimli, John-Rhys Davies, Western
Civilization is also in a "precarious" state because of a "collapse" in
population.
 
"Western Europeans are not having any babies," he recently pointed out, in
a candid interview with a group of reporters, including Steven D.
Greydanus of the National Catholic Register. "The population of Germany at
the end of the century is going to be 56% of what it is now. The
population of France, 52% of what it is now. The population of Italy is
going to be down 7 million people."(1)
 
Rhys-Davies' projections are right on, in keeping with the UN Population
Division's (UNPD) low variant projection, which history has shown to be
most accurate.
 
The population of Western Europe has peaked and already has started to
fall. By 2050, Western Europe will have 26 million fewer people than it
does today (183 million). Europe's population is also getting older, and
rapidly dying off. European women aren't having enough children. The
birthrate of Europe has been falling for the past several decades, and is
currently well below replacement, at 1.5, and continuing to fall. Europe's
overall population by 2050 will be 171 million less than it is today (727
million). Fifty years from now, 40% of Europe's total population will be
over sixty years of age. The median age in Europe will be 52.(2) In 2050,
the total number of women of reproductive age will have been cut in half
from about 370 (today) to 185 million. By 2100, if Europe's indigenous
population is to rebound to current levels, each woman of reproductive
age, beginning in 2050, will have to give birth to about five children on
average throughout her reproductive age.
 
Mr. Rhys-Davies also warned of a kind of cultural invasion threatening
Western Civilization. "There is a demographic catastrophe happening in
Europe that nobody wants to talk about," he said, "that we daren't bring
up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And
rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well. . By 2020,
50% of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim
descent."(3)
 
Currently, about 50 million Muslims are living in Europe,(4) accounting
for the biggest ethnic influx into modern Europe. These two events
combined, Europe's birth-dearth and Muslim in-migration, leads Rhys-Davies
to warn not of a racial threat, but of a threat to western culture.

"There is a change happening in the very complexion of Western
civilization in Europe that we should think about at least and argue
about," he said. "If it just means the replacement of one genetic stock
with another genetic stock, that doesn't matter too much. But if it
involves the replacement of Western civilization with a different
civilization with different cultural values, then it is something we
really ought to discuss. . . . True democracy comes from our
Greco-Judeo-Christian Western experience. If we lose these things, then
this is a catastrophe for the world."(5)
 
Reflecting on Tolkien's intended meaning of The Lord of the Rings,
Rhys-Davies said: "I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be
challenged, and if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose
their civilization."
 
To Mr. Rhys-Davies, we at PRI say: "The courage of Gimli is reflected by
your words. Thank you for publicly proclaiming the truth."

 
ENDNOTES
 
1. "Not Goblins and Orcs This Time: 'Gimli' Defends Western Civilization,"
by Steven D. Greydanus, National Catholic Register (NCR), 15 December
2003.
2. U.N. Population Division, "World Population Prospects," The 2000
Revision; includes extrapolations.
3. Ibid., NCR.
4. "Muslim Population Worldwide," Islamicpopulation.com, 2001-2003.
5. Ibid., NCR.


__________
Steve Mosher is the president of Population Research Institute, a
non-profit organization dedicated to debunking the myth that the world is
overpopulated.
__________
© 2004 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted.
Redistribute widely. Credit required.
 
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__________
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counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of
"overpopulation."
 
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