This, Kubler-Ross suggested, is the universal denial of death that prevails around the world. Some similar denial mechanism clicks into operation whenever we in the commercially successful and educationally advanced regions are presented with the statistics of how the globe is handling its rapidly expanding population and rapidly depleting resources. It's become a popular debate in our age to argue whether politics is personal. Everything is personal. So it is, as is world growth.
Population is personal.
I confess that having just finished reading about the world population problems when I picked up the magazine, I was close to regurgitating after reading the prose that cheered and encouraged our youngsters' materialistic, selfish and glamour-oriented lifestyle. Richer than ever, they're also a retailer's dream, with a seemingly insatiable desire for the latest in everything. I found little or nothing about how they view their place in the global community. I like the singing. Practically every point made in the Newsweek story was rooted in money, not in thought, and even where the children were named, little was given to readers about how that child really feels about life and the world.