Readers often tend to mistake observations for recommendations. I’m not doing anything like “proposing ‘unlocking’ the food” in My Ishmael any more than I’m proposing to put a cap on food production in The Story of B.
Locking up the food has had (and continues to have) tremendous negative consequences on our lives. If people don’t mind putting up with those consequences, then they’ll never wonder how they might go about unlocking the food. Similarly, unlimited food production is the fuel that is driving our catastrophic population explosion–but if people don’t mind the prospect of human extinction, then they’ll never wonder how they might go about ending that unlimited production.
I see myself as being like the Surgeon General who, in 1964 published the first definitive report linking smoking to cancer. He didn’t say, “You must stop smoking,” he just said, “Smoking puts you at tremendous risk.” Like the Surgeon General, I don’t make proposals, I just make connections. What people choose to do with those connections is up to them.
ID: 449
posted: 13 Jan 2000
updated: 13 Jan 2000
