Keep Right – Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
Globally, humanity faces a reproductive crisis. On all continents, males are seeing a conspicuous reduction in their fertility, when compared with a half-century ago.
Some hail this as a victory against Malthusian overpopulation. However, as we human beings did not make this happen we cannot put a stop to it. When we reach some ideologue’s idea of sustainable balance, we will not be able to stop it.
Across the developed world, traditional populations are not replacing themselves. We are not having enough babies. This is already causing economic and social problems, which will only intensify as this problem becomes more evident.
Recently, I read an article about plastic microscopic shards that have been found in the testicles of test animals and human beings. These tiny knives are a byproduct of solid plastics deteriorating. They are so small that they penetrate the bodies of plants, animals, and human beings.
They might be utterly harmless. But, having our bodies suffused by tiny plastic blades may not be good for us. We are just learning about such things. We have little long-term experimental data.
Personally, as a scientist, I am a good history teacher. What I mean by this is that science is absolutely not my field of expertise. It is clear, though, that our contemporary lifestyles are without precedent. Nowhere in the record of human history do any people live such outlandish lives as we do today.
One of the few close parallels to lifestyles like ours are those led by citizens, subjects, and slaves of the Pax Romana. Like us, they made themselves dependent on complex systems which they innovated in order to maximize their ease and comfort.
Romans used lead to solder pipes in their amazing water systems. From aqueducts to fountains to public toilets and sewers, leaden pipe-joinings were everywhere. Amazingly, this use of lead helped spell their doom.
We now know that lead poisoning leads to severe neurological disorders. The conspicuous lassitude of so many late Romans, who largely refused to play an active part in saving their decaying society, can in part be explained by the effects of centuries of exposure to lead poisoning.
As the Romans were ignorant of the effects of lead, we have no idea what long-term exposure to plastics could do to us. The same is true for the effects of cellular telephones, electro-magnetic emanations, cloning, hormone-rich meat, and chemical fertilizers.
So little that we consume is natural. So little that we do would be even comprehensible to our ancestors of just over a century ago. It is entirely possible that unexpected contaminants could be as dangerous to our long-term survival as the awakening of the cybernetic mind or the mass detonation of many hydrogen bombs.
We in the developed world are not nearly suspicious enough about accepting unprecedented innovations into our lives. We seem to have no anchors of faith, tradition, and even common sense to help guide us through this intensifying technological deluge.
In an endless search for “new & improved” ways of living, we abide no restraint. We are greedy for labor-saving devices. We hunger for novelty, and we thirst to be on the cutting edge of societal progress.
Technophilic avarice is changing our lives. Our greed to acquire the newest toys makes us increasingly dependent on them, and on the people who provide them. We have no idea about the long-term effects of such thoroughgoing technological progress on the bodies and minds of human beings.
If we continue to uncritically embrace every new technology, without considering their individual or collective implications to our broader lives, we risk much.
Moria … You fear to go into those mines. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum … shadow and flame.”
J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”
