Ancient wisdom, corroborated by internal reflection, tells us that human nature is an uneasy amalgam in which the idealistic desires of an aspirational soul are in constant combat with the self-centred instincts of an animal body. Hence voluntary population control on a sufficient scale is so unlikely that those among us whose souls are in the ascendancy should simply try to ensure the survival of all that is best in our civilisation after a lemming solution. Unredeemed materialists will obviously find such an idea unpalatable; those of us who look forward to an eternal Life, with or without a body, can remain hopeful and happy.
The soul seeks a state of orderliness in which all may thrive and progress through overcoming difficulties; the body cares only for its own survival and immediate gratification. The soul understands that the body with which it is equipped should be cared for and used economically, and that the balance between care and use has a natural cycle. Children must be nurtured and educated until they are able to look after themselves, find satisfying work, start rearing their own families, and care for their parents and those neighbours who, disabled by sickness, injury or age, are no longer able to look after themselves.
The soul also understands that voluntary restraint is a pre-requisite for the responsible employment and enjoyment of individual liberty in an orderly environment. It seeks to maintain order by restraining other's bodies from harmful behaviour which disturbs the peace of society and it endeavours to foster a spirit of co-operation with other souls to achieve and sustain a mutually congenial way of life in the long term and on the widest possible scale.
The body seeks a life of ease, comfort, and immediate supply of whatever it wants for whatever reason. Humans who are unwilling or unable to control their animal instincts in their haste for satisfaction are liable to engage in disorderly acts which are harmful to others. Such people are not fit to be free. Hence a system of laws must be devised to define types of conduct which are universally agreed to be "wrong" and to prescribe restraints and punishments, including deprivation of liberty — and, in extreme cases, even of life — for wrong-doers.
Its legal system is probably the principal defining characteristic of a nation.
It is therefore regrettable that in the aftermath of the Second World War, a natural desire to deter further wars between states resulted in the development of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, infringement of which by any nations would incur international sanctions. This Declaration has turned out to be a minefield of subjective sentimental niceties which has enabled many wrong-doers to escape appropriate punishment by asserting their "human rights" and getting the benefit of Quixotic judicial interpretations of the Declaration.
I cannot see any moral justification for granting human wrong-doers any "rights" beyond those available to other animals which make an intolerable nuisance of themselves. If punishment is to "fit the crime", anyone found guilty after due process should be deemed to have relinquished his or her notional "rights" until the prescribed punishment has been completed.
Plato knew that even at the level of government, the same struggle between soul and instinct continues within the "guardians" (whom we today commonly call "politicians") and determines the overall tenor of the resulting government.
The chief problem with taxation is that it places a very large proportion of the nation's wealth at the disposal of a small number of governors, most of whom have no experience in the application of unimaginably huge funds to duly authorised economic ends and may be too arrogant to seek advice from the small minority who do. A secondary problem is that governors may raise taxes to a level so high as to be counter-productive. And, of course, there is always the possibility that instinct may vanquish soul in the matter of stewardship.
It should be recognized that "career" politicians have no power of their own. All they can do is talk in the hope of persuading the people to place power at their temporary disposal through the expedient of elections and "opinion polls". Once elected, too many politicians use their borrowed power as if it were their own.
Is it not obvious that political representatives elected for short periods on the basis of the fickle opinions of a poorly informed public require some form of supervision, not only to survive the vacillations of a fickle electorate but also to ensure some concern for the continuity of the nation into the indefinite future beyond polls and elections?
Here in the UK, we have made a terrible error in emasculating the House of Lords by removing nearly all the "hereditaries" and replacing them with worn-out politicians and other honorary "life peers", all too often selected on the basis of generous financial donations to political parties rather than personal distinction. The Church of England is still represented by a few bishops (the "Lords Spiritual") as a token gesture to the care of souls, but the great majority of the electorate seem to have lost faith in the Church.
Hence I feel that many among the Queen's subjects would now welcome a restoration of the constitution of the Upper House approximately as it was in about 1946, but perhaps with a sprinkling of representatives of other faiths besides those of the "established church". Certainly, any move to make its membership subjected to the lottery of election by nothing more substantial than public opinion bedevilled by Party propaganda should be resolutely opposed, because it would only mean "more of the same" and therefore be "worse".
The main reason for this is that politicians greedy for power bribe the unthinking electorate by promising higher "standards of living" through general entitlement to "welfare" and other "benefits" to be paid for by taxation. This is the essence of the the economically ruinous brand of "socialism" now so well-established in the United Kingdom that no political party that hopes to gain enough votes to form a government dares declare an intention to modify it in any important respect.
Those of the young who succeed in finding jobs or, better, in creating their own work as some few contrive to do, still have to wait much longer than they would like before they can afford to leave their family homes, secure their own accommodation, start their own families, and become responsible citizens. Hence far too many young adults fall into the slough of the debilitating dependency culture by which the State inadvertently promotes a life of crime.
The only means of encouraging energetic enterprising young persons is to exempt them from personal income tax until they have reached a level of earning at which they can not only keep themselves in board and lodging but also save enough from their incomes to lay "nest eggs" which will gradually develop into deposits on homes and, later, result in "happy families" independent of the State.
Let us hope that this happens and that future generations will bless the political heroes who saved them from having to carry financial burdens bequeathed by their grand-parents.