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echo: educator
to: MICHAEL MARTINEZ
from: RON MCDERMOTT
date: 1996-08-13 14:15:00
subject: ILLICH2-2

on a philosophical level.  Can we go back?  Sure, just have
to eliminate a couple billion people and their offspring to
allow the land masses to produce enough game and grain to
allow the rest to survive by personal action (independent
living; farming, hunting).  You can't do it with the type
of population density which now exists (unless you take
the population onto the open seas which is the opening
move in the book I'm reading).... BTW, in these "utopian"
societies you cite, people died in their 40's and 50's,
and were largely subjugated by various warlords, kings,
emperors, etc.  I don't see this as an improvement, and I
suspect there would be a lot of agreement on that point...
MM>We've already conquered infectious diseases with very simple 
MM>antibiotics.
This is a GROSS overstatement... We have conquered only a
couple diseases.  If we could apply antibiotics worldwide,
then we might be able to wipe out a couple more, but this,
too, involves imposing beliefs/wishes on others - A no-no,
I believe?  Meanwhile, the little "bugs" are mutating into
resistant strains which our antibiotics cannot control.
If the symbiotic nature of GAIA, which some believe in, 
DOES exist, then it is only a matter of time before a 
virulent strain of bug comes along and wipes out a couple 
billion of us... THEN we may be able to try out your 
ideas... In the meantime, you want a return to agrarianism
without forfeiting the benefits of technology (antibiotics,
etc) - You can't have it both ways...
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