Is Mankind an Illneſs?

2nd of 2nd mo., 2025

There are thoſe who ſay that mankind behaves as an illneſs, or virus. This is, to me, a frain I much becare; if I and my fellow Men are truly ſmiting and ſpending as an illneſs does, I would wiſh to know it, ſo that I can righten it and be a more rightwiſe dweller in the world. After all, even were it true, it would not be a thought that comes readily to us—vira, I ween, are gladdened by their wake of throes and weakneſs. Maybe we are gladdened by what are truly ills and we cannot yet ſee it. Let us look at our ſteading from the eyes of an outſider, firſt by formarking what is a virus. I ſhall put that a virus:

• Breeds as ſwiftly and as widely as it may.
• Spends without thinking of the welfare of other beings.
• Thrives only at the worſening of other beings.

The firſt putting is that an illneſs breeds at the higheſt ſpeed it can. A thinker like Paul R. Ehrlich may well have ſtood with ſuch a thoughtwording. However, when one looks at the layer of the ſelf, one ofteneſt finds great thought put into the ilot to have children—and, in many, a hidging from child-rearing altogether. If mankind were at any time as an illneſs, it moſt wiſſly is not now, as, in sundry lands, a foremanineſs will never mother or father children at all. There is a growing care not to raiſe a child where he does not belong, and even, in ſome, a higher (though miſled, I think) feeling to have fewer children for the ſake of the earth. The ſaying that mankind breeds as an illneſs thus ſeems to fall ſhort of the truth.

Then there is the other putting—that mankind overſpends the wealth of the earth. This, I think, is the ſtrongeſt onſaw againſt us. In our lust for hoardſtreen, we and our foreelders have choked the ſkies with coalſmoke and fouled the ſtreams with traſh and fladge. Whole underkinds of beings have been driven to offdying while Men have ſtood by, ſo inthralled by the ſparkling of their belongings that they could not raiſe their tungs againſt the beſmiters of the world—or even forchooſe againſt them. For this, our offſpring will fordoom us. Even now, however, there are the ſtirrings of a great wending in our thinking and doing: a new looking toward what is green and hale for the earth. It will take time, but it is coming. No virus would be ſo caring for the earth as the beſt of us wiſh to be.

The third and laſt putting is that a virus thrives on the worſening of others’ lives. This is another weighty onſaw. As Men, we overfiſh, raiſe liveſtock gramly, and even ſmite the mankind of tomorrow in our greed today. Overborrowing means our children will be ſaddled with our own fees; our tireleſs will to make and hoard will give our children a crumpled earth. The worſt of us even ſhoot and ſlay deer for nothing more than fun and play, a ſad warping of the hunting that our forefathers did out of need. Still, though, I ſee in us the will to be better—there are thoſe among us who feel a deep fellow-love for deer, fiſh, and livestock (ſo much ſo that they would rather grow meat in a workſtead), who care ſtrongly for the Men of tomorrow, and who mourn what we do now to the earth.

I muſt leave the reader at the ſame ſtead of unwiſſneſs where I now ſtand. There are many deals of mankind which ſhow it to be, indeed, as a virus. They who bear and then forſake children, who ſpend and hoard endleſſly, and who have no true love for their fellow beings and the earth whence they came do ſeem to be as illneſſes, bearing life for no meaning other than to eat, hoard, and die. It is only in the lives of they who raiſe children in love and good thought, who ſpend charily, and who do not give in to hate and hard-heartedneſs that life bears true meaning and overtops mere mindleſs virus-neſs. Theſe are my thoughts, and mayhap mine alone—but I give them only in hope of a greatened and heightened tomorrow for all of my brothers and ſiſters, thoſe children of Earth.