[see the zeppelin upper right corner for the "Now" denotation]VAN LOON WISDOM
During only a couple of thousands of centuries (a mere second from the point of view of eternity) the human race has made itself the undisputed ruler of every bit of land and at present (Ed. note: 1932) it bids fair to add both air and sea as part of its domains. And all that, if you please, has been accomplished by a few hundred million creatures who have enjoyed not one single advantage over their enemies except the divine gift of Reason.
Even there I am exaggerating. The gift of Reason in its more sublime form and the ability to think for one’s self is restricted to a mere handful of men and women. They therefore became the masters who lead. The others, no matter how much they may resent the fact, can only follow. The result is a strange and halting procession, for no matter how hard people may try, there are ten thousand stragglers for every true pioneer.
Whither the route of march will eventually lead us, that we do not know. But in the light of what has been achieved during the last four thousand years, there is no limit to the sum total of our potential achievements - unless we are tempted away from the path of normal development by our strange inherent cruelty which makes us treat other members of our own species as we would never have dared to treat a cow or a dog, or even a tree.
The earth and the fullness thereof has been placed at the disposal of Man. Where it has not been placed at his disposal, he has taken possession by right of his superior brain and by the strength of his foresight and his shot-guns.
This home of ours is a good home. It grows food enough for all of us. It has abundant quarries and clay beds and forests from which all of us can be provided with more than ample shelter. The patient sheep of our pastures and the waving flax fields with their myriads of blue flowers, not to forget the industrious little silk worm of China’s mulberry trees – they all contribute to shelter our bodies against the cold of winter and protect them against the scorching heat of summer. This home of ours is a good home. It produces all these benefits in so abundant measure that every man, woman and child could have his or her share with a little extra supply thrown in for the inevitable days of rest.
But Nature has her own code of laws. They are just, these laws, but they are inexorable and there is no court of appeal.
Nature will give unto us and she will give without stint, but in return she demands that we study her precepts and abide by her dictates.
A hundred cows in a meadow meant for only fifty spells disaster – a bit of wisdom with which every farmer is thoroughly familiar. A million people gathered in one spot where there should be only a hundred thousand causes congestion, poverty and unnecessary suffering, a fact which apparently has been overlooked by those who are supposed to guide our destinies.
That, however, is not the most serious of our manifold errors. There is another way in which we offend out generous foster-mother. Man is the only living organism that is hostile to its own kind. Dog does not eat dog – tiger does not eat tiger – yea, even the loathsome hyena lives at peace with the members of his own species. But Man hates Man, Man kills Man, and in the world of today the prime concern of every nation is to prepare itself for the coming slaughter of some more of its neighbors.
This open violation of Article I of the great Code of Creation which insists upon peace
and good will among the members of the same species has carried us to a point where soon the human race may be faced with the possibility of complete annihilation. For our enemies are ever on the alert. If Homo Sapiens (the all too-flattering name given to our race by a cynical scientist, to denote our intellectual superiority over the rest of the animal world) – if Homo Sapiens is unable or unwilling to assert himself as the master of all he surveys, there are thousands of other candidates for the job and it ofttimes seems as if a world dominated by cats or dogs or elephants or some of the more highly organized insects (and how they watch their opportunity!) might offer very decided advantages over a planet top-heavy with bathe-ships and siege-guns.
What is the answer and what is the way out of this hideous and shameful state of affairs?
It will take some time, it will take hundreds of years of slow and painful education to make us find the true road to salvation. But that road leads towards the consciousness that we are all of us fellow-passengers on one and the same planet. Once we have got hold of this absolute verity – once we have realized and grasped the fact that for better or for worse this is our common home – that we have never known another place of abode – that we shall never be able to move from the spot in space upon which we happened to be born – that it therefore behooves us to behave as we would if we found ourselves on board a train or a steamer bound for an unknown destination – we shall have taken the first but most important step towards the solution of that terrible problem which is at the root of all our difficulties.
We are all of us fellow-passengers on the same planet and the weal and woe of everybody else means the weal and woe of ourselves!
Call me a dreamer and call me a fool – call me a visionary or call for the police or the ambulance to remove me to a spot where I can no longer proclaim such unwelcome heresies. But mark my words and remember them on that fatal day when the human raceshall be requested to pack up its little toys and surrender the keys of happiness to a more worthy successor.
The only hope for survival lies in that one sentence:
WE ARE ALL OF US FELLOW PASSENGERS ON THE SAME PLANET AND WE ARE ALL OF US EQUALLY RESPONSIBIITY FOR THE HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING OF THE WORLD IN WHICH WE HAPPEN TO LIVE.
During only a couple of thousands of centuries (a mere second from the point of view of eternity) the human race has made itself the undisputed ruler of every bit of land and at present (Ed. note: 1932) it bids fair to add both air and sea as part of its domains. And all that, if you please, has been accomplished by a few hundred million creatures who have enjoyed not one single advantage over their enemies except the divine gift of Reason.
Even there I am exaggerating. The gift of Reason in its more sublime form and the ability to think for one’s self is restricted to a mere handful of men and women. They therefore became the masters who lead. The others, no matter how much they may resent the fact, can only follow. The result is a strange and halting procession, for no matter how hard people may try, there are ten thousand stragglers for every true pioneer.
Whither the route of march will eventually lead us, that we do not know. But in the light of what has been achieved during the last four thousand years, there is no limit to the sum total of our potential achievements - unless we are tempted away from the path of normal development by our strange inherent cruelty which makes us treat other members of our own species as we would never have dared to treat a cow or a dog, or even a tree.
The earth and the fullness thereof has been placed at the disposal of Man. Where it has not been placed at his disposal, he has taken possession by right of his superior brain and by the strength of his foresight and his shot-guns.
This home of ours is a good home. It grows food enough for all of us. It has abundant quarries and clay beds and forests from which all of us can be provided with more than ample shelter. The patient sheep of our pastures and the waving flax fields with their myriads of blue flowers, not to forget the industrious little silk worm of China’s mulberry trees – they all contribute to shelter our bodies against the cold of winter and protect them against the scorching heat of summer. This home of ours is a good home. It produces all these benefits in so abundant measure that every man, woman and child could have his or her share with a little extra supply thrown in for the inevitable days of rest.
But Nature has her own code of laws. They are just, these laws, but they are inexorable and there is no court of appeal.
Nature will give unto us and she will give without stint, but in return she demands that we study her precepts and abide by her dictates.
A hundred cows in a meadow meant for only fifty spells disaster – a bit of wisdom with which every farmer is thoroughly familiar. A million people gathered in one spot where there should be only a hundred thousand causes congestion, poverty and unnecessary suffering, a fact which apparently has been overlooked by those who are supposed to guide our destinies.
That, however, is not the most serious of our manifold errors. There is another way in which we offend out generous foster-mother. Man is the only living organism that is hostile to its own kind. Dog does not eat dog – tiger does not eat tiger – yea, even the loathsome hyena lives at peace with the members of his own species. But Man hates Man, Man kills Man, and in the world of today the prime concern of every nation is to prepare itself for the coming slaughter of some more of its neighbors.
This open violation of Article I of the great Code of Creation which insists upon peace
and good will among the members of the same species has carried us to a point where soon the human race may be faced with the possibility of complete annihilation. For our enemies are ever on the alert. If Homo Sapiens (the all too-flattering name given to our race by a cynical scientist, to denote our intellectual superiority over the rest of the animal world) – if Homo Sapiens is unable or unwilling to assert himself as the master of all he surveys, there are thousands of other candidates for the job and it ofttimes seems as if a world dominated by cats or dogs or elephants or some of the more highly organized insects (and how they watch their opportunity!) might offer very decided advantages over a planet top-heavy with bathe-ships and siege-guns.
What is the answer and what is the way out of this hideous and shameful state of affairs?
It will take some time, it will take hundreds of years of slow and painful education to make us find the true road to salvation. But that road leads towards the consciousness that we are all of us fellow-passengers on one and the same planet. Once we have got hold of this absolute verity – once we have realized and grasped the fact that for better or for worse this is our common home – that we have never known another place of abode – that we shall never be able to move from the spot in space upon which we happened to be born – that it therefore behooves us to behave as we would if we found ourselves on board a train or a steamer bound for an unknown destination – we shall have taken the first but most important step towards the solution of that terrible problem which is at the root of all our difficulties.
We are all of us fellow-passengers on the same planet and the weal and woe of everybody else means the weal and woe of ourselves!
Call me a dreamer and call me a fool – call me a visionary or call for the police or the ambulance to remove me to a spot where I can no longer proclaim such unwelcome heresies. But mark my words and remember them on that fatal day when the human raceshall be requested to pack up its little toys and surrender the keys of happiness to a more worthy successor.
The only hope for survival lies in that one sentence:
WE ARE ALL OF US FELLOW PASSENGERS ON THE SAME PLANET AND WE ARE ALL OF US EQUALLY RESPONSIBIITY FOR THE HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING OF THE WORLD IN WHICH WE HAPPEN TO LIVE.
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