il miglior fabbro

No matter what else you read today, make sure you read Mitch's piece on the life and times of Paul Ehrlich, perhaps the most dogged Cassandra the world has ever known. Just a quick taste:

His body of work – at least, his work that impinges on politics and human events – has had three things in common.

He’s blamed Western Civilization – especially our economic freedom – for successive waves of self-caused, predicted catastrophes.

He’s prescription to deal with these catastrophes has been, in every case, for the individual to surrender his/her autonomy, and even future, to an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful central entity that’ll make all the hard, life and death choices for them.

And he’s been wrong on every count. Humans, rather than sitting in caves waiting to get eaten by sabre tooth tigers, invented spears. Faced with floods, we invented the sandbag as an alternative to drowning and mildew. And faced with shortage of resources, we adapt. And humanity in the past forty years has adapted – learning to grow crops where we didn’t before, learning to conserve farmland and water, developing new crops and practices.

It continues to amaze me that Paul Ehrlich isn't hooted off the stage. But there he is. Read the whole thing. And share it with your friends.