¶ Politics (1)
Index Entry
Politics:
"We need not be against politicians to realize that their local preoccupations are futile. They have good convictions and are individually moved as human beings by what they regard as a responsibility to ‘their’ side or ‘our’ side. But every political ideology and all extant political systems assume that there is not enough to go around: it is either you or me; there can’t be enough for both. So we eventually assume war; and that is the cause of the weapons race.
“The reasoning was once correct. When there is enough available a healthy human will eat three pounds of dry food a day, drink six pounds of water, and breathe 54 pounds of air: or six pounds net of oxygen. For most of the history of man on earth there has not been enough of that dry food and humanity has fought about this, time and again. Many times there has not been enough water; and humanity has fought over this. There has been no time when there has not been enough air. Humanity has so much air available that no one has even thought of putting meters on air and trying to make money out of it. But there are times, for example in a great theater fire, when humanity, completely unused to competing for air, finds itself suffocating and goes mad.”
¶ Citations
- YEAR 2000, AD, Feb’67
