Some readers may feel that I am being unrealistic in postulating a future in which cannibalism is rampant. Actually man has eaten man before. There is evidence that it happened in Neandertal times, and since then when hunger became sufficient. Ritual man-eating has occurred in headhunter cultures, and it became wholesale among the Aztecs of pre-Columbian Mexico, where some 50,000 people a year were ritually slaughtered and eaten; my historical novel Tatham Mound has reference to that, and the matter is well documented. The Donner Party of 1846–47 is infamous for surviving by eating its own when stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada. Piers Paul Read wrote of a similar case in Chile when members of a soccer team were stranded by an airplane wreck in the Andes range in 1972. (I once received a batch of fan letters intended for him, owing to a confusion of names.) There is recent evidence that the Japanese army practiced it in World War II. Cannibalism seems to have occurred in all inhabited continents at some time, usually when hunger was extreme but also as a religious rite. Since hunger will become extreme in our future, if present trends continue, the assumption seems reasonable, as does my notion of feeding on algae and insects.
I started editing this text on my fifty-eighth birthday, August 6, 1992. That routine day I received twenty-nine letters, some packages, and the usual collection of junk mail. That was the positive side of my day. I read the newspaper and noticed how many of the items related to the theme of this project. Somalia, a country of east Africa close to the theoretical birthplace of mankind, was headlined as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” with four million people facing death from starvation, sickness, and war. Food was being shipped in, but couldn’t reach the people because of the continuing fighting; men with guns hijacked it for themselves or to sell on the black market. Meanwhile in America civil rights charges were being leveled at four white Los Angeles police officers who had been videotaped badly beating a black man, Rodney King, while arresting him for speeding. They had been found not guilty of criminal charges, that decision triggering the worst city riot in decades. Food stamps to help 20,000 needy residents after the riot had been delayed more than a month. In Europe there were charges of atrocities by the Serbs against Muslims and Croats, and the image of the Nazi death camps was evoked. Devastating fires were still raging in six American states. Saddam Hussein of Iraq was reported to have recovered the power to invade Kuwait again. Environmental damage resulting from an oil spill in the Amazon region was discovered to be worse than previously thought. The state of Oregon’s tough ordering of the distribution of funds for health care so as to make it both fair and affordable was in abeyance because of a court decision. And there were reports of bad attitudes among the members of America’s Olympic basketball “Dream Team,” and criticism of the TV coverage of the games, and of biased judging or even cheating. In short, on this random day, ongoing mischief abounded across the world, with people suffering and dying exactly as Malthus predicted, and efforts to alleviate the situation being hindered by the indifference or active interference of others. Disharmony showed even in the Olympics, which were supposed to bring the world together in healthy individual excellence and sportsmanship. As a species we aren’t learning anything, and time is running out.
I have several mental images. These are just little situations I ponder every so often. One I have used elsewhere, as a vision of a character in a novel, but it comes so frequently to my mind that I’ll mention it here as well. It is a scene of two mares grazing in a fenced pasture, as ours used to do. One, more thoughtful than the other, does some computation and realizes that at the rate they are eating, they will run out before spring comes and then starve. She tries to explain this to the other horse, suggesting that they both ration their grazing so as to make the grass and hay last until the new grass grows. But the other mare ignores her, and continues to eat at the same rate. Thus both of them will later starve. What is the first mare to do?
Or picture a goat who finds himself in with a herd of sheep; he looks around and sees that the path ahead is narrowing into a corral where grim-looking men are gathered, holding shears or perhaps butcher knives. The sheep are just moving forward, each following the one in front. But they are in for a shearing or worse if they don’t change course in a hurry. The goat tries to warn them of his suspicion, but they ignore him as a “doom and gloomer.” He can’t just cut out on his own; he is wedged into the middle of the flock, and is being borne along by the momentum of the masses. He will share their fate. Can the goat alert the sheep in time?
Or a group of people dancing on the deck of a giant pleasure ship. They are having a great time. But one boy looks over the rail and sees that the waterline is higher than it was. In fact the ship is slowly sinking in the water. Alarmed, he goes to the captain, but the captain refuses to be concerned. “It is true that we collided with an iceberg, but no significant damage was done. This ship is unsinkable. Don’t generate panic by spreading a wild story.” So, does the boy behave by keeping his mouth shut, or does he try to alert the passengers of the Titanic to the problem? Will they pay attention if he does?
Malthus was right. Our world is heading for something like this. The signs are coming clear to those who care to look. The climate is changing, bringing agricultural ruin to parts of the world. Today there is famine in Africa and shortage elsewhere. Tomorrow that famine may be everywhere. We have seen only the beginning of the most horrendous problems. All over the world our people are addressing our most immediate concerns, as we have for several million years. In the process we have made a marvelous civilization—and come close to destroying the life of the planet. Perhaps we can change course before it is too late. But will we?
I hope so.
Isle of Woman (Geodyssey) Page 50
