Nature makes human beings and human beings make more human beings.

When nature stops making human beings, human beings will not be able to make more human beings.

So, why do we always talk as if man is in control of ‘populating the earth’?   This sounds a lot like the ‘megalomania’ that the Amerindian accused his European colonizers (Western man) of;  i.e. Western man’s belief that he is in charge of the interdependent web-of-life rather than being merely a strand within it.

Do we really believe, like we teach our children, that babies come from two humans, a male and female, by their coming together in the ‘reproductive act’ and, voila,- a new little human being.    In this self-congratulation for our claimed, amazing powers of creation, aren’t we forgetting something?  Aren’t we forgetting that Nature decided that humans would be here and will decide when there is no longer any need for them?  Shouldn’t we be understanding that it is not really ‘us’, the local man and woman, that is making the babies?

Emerson discusses how we western humans tend to confuse ‘talent’ for ‘genius’.   (more…)