LogFAQs > #913949436

It may be echoing the comic version where Thanos is self defeating himself, and he subconsciously sets up his own failure.

More realistically in movie, he's a nihilist, or perhaps more accurately, a fatalist. He doesn't see that as a positive solution because we'd just grow into the new resources and the cycle would repeat, whereas by contrast, his lesson is harsh and makes a harsh point: keep population in check or you risk death of self or loved ones in a necessary culling.

It's reminiscent of an old sci fi radio play I listened to a while back where a scientist purposely scrapped warp travel because he felt if mankind wasn't faced with the harsh choice now about controlling their population, they'd always look for the easy way out and just make things worse over time just expecting a way out to present itself.
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