So Human an Animal


     Since human beings are as much the product of their total
environment as of their genetic endowment,it is theoretically
possible to improve the lot of man on earth by manipulating the
environmental factors that shape his nature and condition his
destiny. In the modern world, urbanization and technology are
certainly among the most important of these factors and for this
reason it is deplorable that so little is done to study their
effects on human life.
     We claim to live in a scientific era, but the truth is that,
as presently managed, the scientific enterprise is too lopsided to
allow science to be of much use in the conduct of human affairs. We
have accumulated an immense body of knowledge about mater, and
powerful techniques to control and exploit the external world.
However, we are grossly ignorant of the effects likely to result
from these manipulations; we behave often as if we were the last
generation to inhabit the earth.
     We have aquired much information about the body machine and
some skill in controlling it's responses and correcting it's
defects. In contrast, we know almost nothing of the processes
through which every man converts his potentialities into his
individuality. Yet without this knowledge, social and technological
innovations are not likely to serve worthwhile human ends.
     The  "square" life, as usually understood, is stifling and
thwarts the responses essential for man's sanity and for the
healthy development of human potentialities. All thoughtful persons
worry about the future of the children who will have to spend their
lives under the absurd social and environmental conditions we are
thoughtlessly creating; even more disturbing is the fact that the
physical and mental characteristics of mankind are being shaped now
by dirty skies and cluttered streets, anonymous high rises and
amorphous urban sprawl, social attitudes which are more concerned
with things than with men.
     Young people have good reason to reject the values that govern
technicized societies; but protesting against conventional patterns
of behavior or withdrawing from the present economic system will
not suffice to change the suicidal course on which we are now
engaged. A constructive approach cannot be only political or
social. It demands that we supplement the knowledge of things and
of the body machine with a science of life.
                                        Rene' Dubos
                                     "So Human an Animal"