Garrett Hardin, Stalking the Wild Taboo (3rd ed.) (The Social Contract Press, Petosky, MI, 1996). ISBN 1-881780-11-2.
This third edition of Hardin's book has withstood well the test of time. It is pure Hardin, with a dry and acerb wit and astonishing insights that leaves one wondering, "He's right. Why didn't I think of that before?"
The "taboos" that Hardin dissects (the most appropriate word that comes to mind) include abortion, religion, technology, competition, and the idea of "need" as superstition. The last section, "At the Cutting Edge," consists of three short essays obviously written or collected for this edition. The third of these ends with a tabulation of important factors and proposals that need to be critically examined. Many of these are familiar to students in ecology and the environment, among them "The world is finite," "There is no such thing as a free lunch," and "In a crowded world, there is no such thing as a 'free life.'"
One would be tempted to say that the whole first section, of arguments in favor of the right to abortion, has been obviated by Roe v. Wade. Yet the problem is still with us in the continuing struggle between the Right-to-Lifers and the Free Choice Advocates, and Hardin addresses this in the last chapter of this section, written after the Supreme Court decision.
Hardin mounts a scathing attack on Humanae Vitae, a Papal bull in which Pope Paul VI ignored the recommendations of the sixty-man Papal Commission on Birth Control and disapproved of any method of birth control. He even warned against too frequent a use of the rhythm method, the only one which passes Vatican scrutiny.
The section on "Technology" is particularly valuable for the spectular way in which Hardin demolishes the visionary notion that we can dispose of our surplus population by rocketing it to the stars -- or even to libration poitns. Other technological myths and taboos which he destroys include the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the notion that we can successfully predict earthquakes. Here Hardin was ahead of his time -- as he so often is. It is only very recently that geologists have appeared to reach the reluctant conclusion that we cannot predict earthquakes. Hardin details the dire consequences of such predictions. It is one thing to predict a hurricane -- which can be viewd and tracked and timed -- quite another to predict a quake.
In his discussion of population and overpopulation -- pure Hardin -- he offers the cogent observation that population is a group concept but the control of population is required of individuals. The possibility of overpopulation, he argues, is still a taboo subject. There are many articles on population but very few on over population.
As always, his book is full of trenchant generalizations, the kind that make you stop and think. Among them: "Noble intentions are a poor excuse for stupid actions" and "If the solution is acceptable, it won't work; if the solution might work, it isn't acceptable."
- Irma S. Jarcho
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