“FUTURE OF HUMAN RACE”

Hokitika Guardian, 3 August 1931, Page 2

“FUTURE OF HUMAN RACE”

A DREAM WORLD. ENCLAND IN 2931 A.D. LONDON, June 4. A new world, aimuuy i" cou.se m COli. li UCLIuII iuld Ucillg lllvJ.iid.eil iUIO mi-ape u.v me e.iang.ng la.-duon.-, id. an and ideals ol tue yoiicii ui io-ua\, picauvu bv Dean luge in a lecture in. ••'Hie f mure oi the Human i.ace, ' at Die Loyal institution. "it may seem a little ilrivo.ous, ’ he remarked, “to interrupt a would-be scientific discussion by exhibit.ng 4 a. topia of my own. J am doing it chieiiy in self-protection, because there is a legend, quite without foundation, that i am fond of finding fault wit.i society as it is, without having anything better to suggest in place of it.” Here is the dean’s version of Knglrnul in 2931.: “The optimum population of Great. Britain has been fixed at 20,000,000. People shall not live in crowds. No persons are allowed to have children without certificates of bodily and mental fitness. Large families are neither approved nor desired. “An Al husband or wife is ns much sought after as wealth and titles are now. “Physieial perfection is cu’tivatcd. A rational costume for both sexes, cheap, becoming, and scanty, enables beauty to be recognised in the body and limbs as well as in the face. “War has been entirely abolished, and all tariff walls .Most oif the nations are nearly all self-supporting. “Since ther care no wars, no army r navy, no national debt, no foreign politics, and no doles of elo.ss bribery by taxation, the functions of the central government are almost nominal. THE OBSTINATE COLD. “National taxation is almost nil. the Parliament, which meets lor a iortnigut or so every year ,is a dign.lied and elderly senatee, composed lurgeiy ot cx-oilicials and retired business men Politics is no longer a dirty trade. “Social presl ..- - to a 'family who can show \! as.. s on both sdies for three generations ” In each paiissh “united '■ hristain worship.” "No lawyers. .Medical assistance is ocminunal. Crime is very rave and never punished by imprisonment. “There, are reformatories for first offenders, and if a delinquent is pronounced incorrigibly anti-social he is privately and painlessly extinguished in a lethal chamber without any public.ty or humiliation to his family. “Infectious disease completely stamped out, except the common cold, which «tiM remains the opprobrium of mnLon 1 science. . “It is a dream which may bo realised,” said the dean, “if we want it enough.” There were ,however, dangers, which niigh “bring this rose pic ture to nought,” and he could not avoid closing with a warning. “Our i future is, in our own hands, to make or mar. If we fall into the pit we shall do it with our eyes open.” Useless to discuss whether we of the planet Earth should ever colonise Mars or Venus, or be invaded by them. “Even if we could fly 20,000,000 or 30,0000,00 miles without air,” he added, “Mars would he too cold to live fit. Venus is probably all under water. We could have one nice bath there before being drowned or devoured by a dinosaur. “Twenty thousand years hence London will probably lie 100 feet under the sea. As Londoners, tile subsequent proceedings will interest- us no more.” PERFECTLY MECHANISED MAN The real period of racial progress, when man was growing his brains was long before the old stone age. “Since then man himself has not progressed. The changes in his body have been mainly degenerative. “These changes are still going on. Some activities necessary to life, suen as the beating of- the heart and th-' chemistry of digestion, are already unconscious and involuntary. Is there any danger that a state of artificial equilibrium less complete than thaet rtf the social insects, hut- putting a final stop to progress, might be induced by bad institutions? “Lot us suppose thnte 500 years of Bolshevist rule in Russia have produced a completely mechanised man. Let us contemplate a policy in which ev- ry spark of initiative, every noble aspiration. every desire for freedom have been extinguished by ruthless elimination. “Wo might then have a policy dis“We might then have a policy distantly approaching the inseettype, except that et-he extreme differentiation of the bees, cuts, and termites could not be imitated in mi,- species, ft is not quite impossible. “Put whereas religion. r\vnersliin. and the (family are imsUtufons ingrained in human nntnm for hundreds of generation'. -”■ v’’l probably be impossible to eradicate them. LEAPING INTO NEW WORLD. “The conditions at present are very far from favouring a stereotyped, unprogressive civilisation. Such a civilisation would soon go under, for we are changing it in fact more rapidly than

;it iiny previous time. Mo are leaping into a new world made by uursches. “This ■ violently Mccolcrateed tempo requires continuous readjustment, increased inventiveness, unceasing criticism of ourselves and our institutions. .Methods of improving the stock, fir less slow and cumbrous than random natural selection, are now open to us." ONE NOT IN AGREEMENT. Or G. Elliot Smith, proies-or ot aiiaiomy, nimuun tins come out as a critic ot some ui the dean s Imdings. in tlie Daily -Mad wl “' meiilfcu : •• Llie growth of the human brain was not complete until long alter the stone Age. Wont is far more important is the gr,. utii »f knowledge of howto use tlie main. ’Only during the last century has man really developed h s powers to their fullest extent. Ibe wonderful achievements in the realm of science alone during the last bO years indicate what I menu. “Dean Inge’s statement that changes in the body have been mainly degenerative is unwarrantable. He seems to suggest that the changes in the jaw and teeth are recent happenings, whereas in the most primitive man the wisdom teeth are already smaller than molars, ‘'Partial loss of the sense of smell happened millions of years ago among man’s ancestors ,and it has very little to do with present or future development df the: human family. It is qn'te likely that the ancient Egyptians suffered ns much from baldness as people in this country do to-day Raineses the Great, for instance, was very bnbi, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, “T do not suppose that there have been at any other period in the history of the world such large numbers of magnificent specimens of mnnkhul ns there are to-day. This is particularly true with regard to women. 1 should say that there, are infinitely larger numbers of beautiful women in the world than there have ever been beTpi">. This is besause women now lead much healthier lives.”