by Ernest L. Norman
The foibles of human dispositions and indispositions are often quite incomprehensible, either to the average observer or to some student or philosopher of human nature; and it is quite often and obviously portrayed in converse actions and policies which actually prohibit long sought-after achievements. The reasons behind such perverse and unintelligent actions are derivatives of complex psychic pressures induced in many areas of human conduct and living. The carnal law of survival is constantly superimposed in dogmatic theological assumptions as to the sacredness of man’s creation and the ability to procreate. Such sublimation is not always justified and often leads into many complex and diverse expressions of human conduct which have neither logic nor reason, and which is as the subject of this discussion—survival and procreation.
For some years now, economists, humanitarians, politicians, statisticians, philosophers and scientists have begun to openly express great alarm in the recent population explosions. At present it is estimated that of the three billion people who swarm upon the earth’s surface, four-fifths of them or two and a half billion do not have sufficient food, and are constantly hungry. Asian and African countries in particular have had such great increases in population that untold millions are now living in abject poverty, without shelter and with insufficient food to survive. It is estimated, if present population continues to increase, that in a hundred years from now the capacity of the planet earth to feed and house these people will have been greatly exceeded. There will simply be not enough food to feed the hordes of people and that particular problem presents certain peculiarities which will not be discussed at this time. One reason for these population explosions first grew in the hearts and minds of people which might be called compassionate understanding, or that certain individuals became more acutely aware of human misery and death.
About one hundred or so years ago, a great renaissance of science began. Men like Pasteur, Lister, and others found disease germs and viruses, with consequent ways of controlling and eliminating plagues caused by these unseen organisms. Malaria, yellow fever, and bubonic plague began to be largely controlled through methods of sanitation.
Then in World War II, the scientist carried his weapons against the invisible killers into the far Eastern countries. The occupation of allied troops in these countries instituted some of the primary measures of curtailment from insects, pests, and other disease carriers, with the inevitable result; and with the continuance of some control, the lives of hundreds of millions of people were prolonged; hundreds of millions more babies grew up into adulthood who would have normally perished, without some modern sanitation and medical control over death-causing conditions. Now, it is well to idealize human life, the right to live, etc., but the right to be well born is a much greater importance. It is a much greater sin to bring a child into the world in poverty and sickness, seeing him go through life in abject circumstances, than it would have been to have prevented his conception or to have aborted that conception in its early stages. And it is right here at this point in our discussion that we must enter into genetical factors and all other important factors to obtain a more comprehensive evaluation of this problem.
Through the several thousands of years of man‘s written history, certain natural factors were always incumbent to some extent, and which exerted some control over both the quality and quantity of human reproduction—survival of the fittest, being the most important and a most logical law, which could always function for people not intelligent enough to determine their own lives. Survival of the fittest largely determined the best babies which would grow up to be adults and could reproduce the largest families. However, in modern science man, to some extent, by partially or wholly eliminating some diseases by foreign aid and food supplies through relief agencies, etc., has eliminated some effect of the law of survival.
However, such foreign aid is very inadequate and does not, in any way—even temporarily—relieve hundreds of millions of persons, not reached by such relief agencies. Then, too, the total cultivatable area of the world which is only 10% of the 25% area, not covered by water, is rapidly being depleted; the soil is constantly being eroded, minerals and vitamins washed away or absorbed by over cultivation. Now again the same question. Does the premise of life mean that life must be lived without logic and reason and without even common necessities? Do we sacrifice sanity in the face of this overwhelming human compassion that human life must be propagated and preserved regardless of circumstances or conditions?
The science of genetics has given mankind a very valuable way to increase the abundance of his food supply; genetics has produced superior meat producing animals; fruits, grains, and vegetables have also been developed in quality and quantity and to resist natural diseases and enemies. However, while man has found genetics extremely useful and productive, even lifesaving in his agronomy, he has not yet applied the same genetics to himself. He still breeds promiscuously. He intermixes races, he permits mental and physical misfits of all kinds and varieties to marry and propagate their ills into their society; even worse, he spends vast resources in dollars and medical institutions, sanitariums, hospitals, asylums, and prisons to extend the life of the more physically handicapped, the mental incorrigibles and hopelessly insane. And when one stops to ponder this enormous and incomprehensible situation, we must indeed wonder if mankind possesses any true sanity or intelligence. Upon the preface that it can be called a human being, a fanatical desire and effort is always put forth to sustain its life, irrespective of the suffering it must endure, or that it reinflicts suffering and sacrifice to others, that it degrades the general tone of the society in which it lives. While it is well to respect and revere human life, it is much more important to respect and revere the franchise which every child should have, which is a chance to have a healthy, happy, normal life, a life in which he can be normally expected to work out part of his evolution.
It is indeed a crime of the first magnitude to bring a child into the world in disease, poverty, and ignorance even though we might say to some extent—in a broad reference—that here again evolution and karma placed this or any child in these conditions. And as of today this great problem remains among the nations of the world, whether to institute controlled birth through contraceptives, drugs, or abortion, or face a possible ultimate extinction of mankind on the planet earth, through starvation. The decadency and destructive decay is now rapidly rising, or even a possible reversal of evolution could come when mankind could possibly cause—through over-population, mass production of constantly degenerating peoples, famine and disease, further deleterious effects from radiation caused from nuclear explosions and other unnatural conditions—the last remnants of mankind to emerge as grotesque mutants, horrible monstrosities, living in caves, in conditions even more primitive than did their stone-age ancestors more than two million years ago. Only time will tell, even though an affirmative prediction could be made.
In the galaxy and universe there are thousands of earth-like planets which have seen the rise and fall of many civilizations of mankind, planets which now hold in their ancient and decayed ruins, the same history of life, the same rise and fall, the same evolution ending in obliteration because these races of men failed in the most important essentials in their development—to find through their science the true creation, the true cause and purpose of life, and the progressive principles of evolution which sustain life through Infinity.
In all fairness, however, it must be stated at this point, the situation is not entirely hopeless; several countries of the world have recognized the obvious necessity or the extreme urgency of a logical population balance. Japan, in particular, has instituted legal abortion and contraceptive methods. There are ninety million or so Japanese living in a cultivatable area less than the total area of the state of California. As of today, more than one third of all conceptions are aborted, and the Japanese people have succeeded in more closely equalizing the birth and death rate of their nation. India too, is attempting to institute a birth control program; however, they have not as yet been nearly as successful. A much larger country with three or four hundred million people, ninety percent illiterate and with almost no communication systems, the task of instituting birth control is almost hopeless.
In India, millions of people sleep in the streets and subsist on small scraps of food, their clothing a few rags. In Africa, populations are exploding in the hundred or more newly formed independent nations—and it might be well to note here that study of the reproduction ratios between the white skinned races and the dark skinned races reveals that these dark skinned people reproduce ten or more to one as compared to the white skinned races. Also, the Caucasians or whites have the same inverse ratio between classes which might be called the wealthy or intellectuals and the more elemental, ignorant and uneducated peoples. Here again these lower classes are reproducing ten to one or more. These are prophetic indications.
Could it be that in the future a thousand or more years from now, the intellectual, artistic, creative white people, the wealthy class of empire builders will have totally disappeared, and only decadent remnants of the Caucasian race, living in the out-of-way places, and away from vast hordes of black skinned people who would, at that time, be living on the land and in the cities which had been built by the extinct Caucasians? This question is posed, not as racialism but as one of the probables to be pondered upon. The inferiority or superiority of one race as compared to another is not one to be satisfied in pragmatic comparisons. It can only be satisfied and justified in the broad abstractions of evolution. For every human, regardless of his color, finds the same equal opportunity to progress and to obtain Immortality in a higher world.
The present position of any human in his evolution is unimportant to Infinite Intelligence. Likewise is the color of his skin; for Infinite Intelligence is not emotional, and is not disposed to pragmatic comparisons. As humans, however, it is up to us to properly determine for ourselves a progressive evolution and an understanding of what gives us the proper perspectives, the proper placements and an insight into human relations without the stigma of pragmatic racialism.
And so, whether it is the preservation of humanity through birth control and other very necessary objectives, the survival of any race, the evolution of the planet earth is, in itself, only an infinitesimally small fraction of universally expressed evolution by Infinite Intelligence.
Excerpt from Tempus Procedium