More from Paul Theroux (see previous posting) in The New York Times: the news that the population of the United States has reached 300 million prompts him to gloomy thoughts about a generally more crowded world:

Travel, except in almost inaccessible places, is no longer the answer to finding solitude. And this contraction of space on a shrinking planet suggests a time, not far off, when there will be no remoteness: nowhere to become lost, nothing to be discovered, no escape, no palpable concept of distance, no peculiarity of dress — frightening thoughts for a traveler.

Americans, he reckons, are becoming ruder, “a nation of shouters and blamers”, and need to mend their manners if they are to cope with the explosion in their numbers:

One of the lessons of travel is that, though half the world is wearing T-shirts and sneakers, they manage to live in overpopulated cities because they have not abandoned their traditional modes of politeness. These grace notes, which make traveling in crowded countries bearable, are a lesson to us in a mobbed and jostling world.