“. . . AND GULLIVER RETURNS”
--In Search of Utopia--
Book One
Touch Down
Return to Earth
“. . . AND GULLIVER RETURNS”
--In Search of Utopia--
BOOK 1--SMASHWORDS EDITION
TOUCH DOWN
RETURN TO EARTH
by
Lemuel Gulliver XVI as told to Jacqueline Slow
© 2008 ISBN 978-0-9823076-0-1
Dear friends—Obviously I wrote this series to be read from Book 1 to the end, but silly me! Readers often begin with what sounds interesting to them. This may leave them unaware of the characters, my friends and I. So let me introduce us. We were boyhood friends, as wild and as close as geese heading south for the winter. But our university educations split us philosophically like a drop of quicksilver hitting the floor. But like those balls of mercury, when brought together, they again become one. As have we.
Ray
became a Catholic priest and moved far to the right of where our
teenage liberalism had bound us. Ray calls himself a
neo-conservative. We think he is a reactionary.
Lee
slid to the left of our adolescent leanings, and somewhere along the
line became an atheist. Lee is a lawyer.
Concannon,
Con for short, retired from his very successful business. I guess his
business experience moved him a bit to the right, to conservatism—a
conservative just to the right of the middle.
Then there’s me. I think I’m pretty much a middle of the
roader—except for my passion to save our planet by reducing our
population before global warming, massive poverty and far-reaching
famines decimate our humanity. Hope this introduction makes our
discussions make a bit more sense
THE RETURN FROM SPACE
“5-4-3-2-1-Touch
down! . . . and Gulliver returns. The greatest adventure in human
history! Commander Lemuel Gulliver the 16th
has completed the first journey around the solar system.
Today, May 17, 2025 is a day that will be forever engraved in the
minds of humanity.
“This is Chet Rowland of World News on the California desert where we have just witnessed the final leg of the greatest human adventure in history, even greater than that of his illustrious ancestor, Lemuel Gulliver the First. After 25 years in space, Lemuel Gulliver the 16th returns from his odyssey of exploring most of the solar system in search of possible homes for the millions or billions of earthlings who have overflowed our planet. Let me try to grab him on his way to de-briefing.
“Commander, let me just ask a couple of questions that the waiting world wants to know.”
--
Sure, but I only have a minute”
—“Have
you found suitable potential homes for the excess world population?
—“Not
at all. There are a few places on Mars and Venus that might be
suitable for underground cities. But there is no place in our solar
system as ‘people friendly’ as our own Earth.”
—“What
made you volunteer for the trip and were you ever sorry that you did?
And were you lonely?”
—“Like
my famous ancestor, the first Gulliver, I lusted for adventure. But
the adventure into the unknown world by his sailing ship 300 years
ago could not have been as exciting as the lure of other worlds
beyond our world. The thrill of space travel and being the
first person to set foot on several planets gave me orgasmic thrills
that will live with me every day of my life. And you ask was I
lonely. Yes and no. I enjoy human companionship as the most soothing
and stimulating salve to my soul. But I was not alone. I had
with me Plato and Aristotle, Jesus and Mohammed, Lao Tzu and
Confucius, Galileo and Copernicus, Freud and Bacon, Shakespeare and
Milton. I was never alone. My 25 years in space gave me years of
uninterrupted reading time to study the great books of our world. And
that voyage into our intellectual cosmos was at least as exciting as
my travel in space. It gave me both the hope of possible solutions to
our planetary problems and a fear that human selfishness would
continue to prevent them.
“Plato saw the selfishness of the family as preventing the best of societies. The Soviet Union’s failure to establish a Communist utopia hinged on a combination of human frailties—the economic selfishness of the masses, the power-mad leaders and the universal propensity to prepare for and recover from war. Plato’s city-state and Bacon’s island state were too small to be useful as models for today’s multi-billion population with space age communication, a global economy, and a myriad of religions and philosophies that divide our human brotherhood into millions of Cains and Abels. Still we should heed the advice of the king of New Atlantis and work to join humanity and policy together.
“Guided by the practice of the rulers of New Atlantis, voyagers would set out periodically to bring back the knowledge of other civilizations to make their own kingdom better. The arts and sciences, the inventions and manufactures, the books and instruments were shared—making every civilization richer. Because, after all, knowledge is power. Such a worldly endeavor appeals to me now. I think there is the possibility to save ourselves from ourselves.”
“What are your immediate plans now that you’ve rejoined humanity?”
—“Some
might think that I would want to take a month on Tahiti and soak up
some rays, but remember, I have been alone for 25 years. I want to
jump into the chaos of civilization and visit some countries that
interest me. Some countries have made effective strides in solving
our universal problems. I have only been able to hear about the
movements, both forward and backward, that nations have taken to
grapple with humankind’s greatest problem—overpopulation. I want
to see for myself. We’re choking ourselves with our wastes in the
air, in the ground and in the seas. We live in fear of criminals,
terrorists and warlords—warlords who have gained power through
ballots or bullets. Utopia is a realizable dream, but will we decide
to pursue it?”
—“With
that whole solar system out there, isn’t there some possibility of
finding a place for utopian settlements to be developed?”
—“No,
not with our present technology—the possibility just isn’t there.
We have found specks of water on our moon and on Enceladus, one of
Saturn’s moons. But there is no way they could support life. Just
imagine donning your bikini for some Saturnic summer sun with the
temperature a balmy minus 201° Celsius, that’s minus 330°
Fahrenheit. We have to solve our population problems here on
earth. And we may already be too late!”
—“The
world has been following your communiqués and there are many
questions about your strong advocacy for licensing parents to have
children as the only hope for humanity.”
—“When
I left my beloved country on October 12, 1999 it was not significant
that my voyage began on Columbus Day. What was significant was that
it was the day that the six billionth baby was born on our planet. In
Sarajevo, Bosnia. Kofi Anan, the Secretary General of the
United Nations made the trip to the Balkans to celebrate, with
trepidation. And the World Health Organization acknowledged it, with
fear for the future. Planned Parenthood shuddered with anxiety and a
renewed sense of panic. And the irreverently intelligent cried for
the future of their children.
“The overpopulation of the earth with its attendant problems of insufficient clean air and water, of loss of soil and oxygen producing trees, the population induced weather changes, the skyrocketing costs of food and energy, and the rapid accumulation of waste made me eager to begin my voyage into the deepest regions of the solar system searching for a hospitable settlement site for those who wished to escape the ecological disaster which humankind has unthinkingly brought upon itself.
“Over half of the world’s population now live in cities. This has concentrated the poverty, the number of slums, and increased violence.(1) In five years, by 2030, five billion will live in the cities. Here in California our population will double to 60 million people in the first half of this century. Most of this growth occurs because of births in the cities, not because of migration. And few governments can provide clean water, sanitation and adequate housing, let alone education and health benefits for the poor.
“There are no easy solutions to the problems created by the continuous increases in the population. On the one hand some politicians and businessmen think that such increases are necessary. Younger workers must pay for the older citizens who retire earlier and live longer—and with those longer retirements more workers are necessary to pay their way because lawmakers did not require workers to contribute enough of their salaries to pay for their own retirements. Business, of course, is always looking to increase its consumer base. The obvious solution for this problem is to increase the death rate. But those of us who are alive don’t like that option. But you remember what the English philosopher Francis Bacon said, ‘He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.’”
—“You
mentioned business. It reminds us of what Confucius said, ‘The
superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands
what will sell.’ But what solutions do you have in mind?”
—“There
is no single solution to the problems released by Pandora’s
population box. To solve the problem of longer life spans and early
retirements we just have to increase the length of the working life
before we can allow one to retire. But there’s a lot more to the
problem than just providing old age benefits. If it isn’t too late,
we can follow the lead of those few countries that have licensed
parents to have children. It seems that it is a major hope to bring
the world back into ecological balance and guarantee that each child
born will have every possibility to develop physically, mentally and
emotionally and to achieve his or her greatest potential in a loving
family. Only then can we reach the utopian goal that has been the
dream of the philosophers and saints who have preceded us. Too many
of us live with the hope that somebody else will do it. This
guarantees that it won’t be done. We should heed Ben Franklin’s
advice that ‘You may delay but time will not.’
“But I want to see how religions that are often violently competitive live in peace when I visit Muchinju. I want to look at how the United Colonies seem to have perverted the concepts of justice and democracy which have led them away from any utopian goals. I want to examine some countries that seem to be moving towards a utopia and some countries that seem to be moving away from such a goal. Are we to wait until God solves the problem or should we assume that God wants us to solve our own problems with our minds—that many believe are the image of God. I don’t think that God wants us to wait for another flood or another Sodom.
THE GOOD LIFE
“It’s not just a question of reducing population, but of eliminating misery and increasing the ‘the good life.’ Some people ask why some should be so poor while others are so rich. Did you know that the thousand richest people have more money than the two and a half million poorest people? Some ask for a more equitable distribution of the wealth—as Karl Marx suggested. The problem is that there isn’t as much money in the world as it appears. When I left, the world’s population of 6 billion had a world gross product of 21 trillion dollars annually. If all of the wealth produced in a year were distributed equally it would have left about $3500 for every person. That would be about the same as the average income in Poland or Venezuela but would have been considerably less than the poorest American state, Mississippi, with an average per capita income of $18,000 or rich Connecticut with an average income of $36,000. Of course countries such as Mozambique with its $94 per year income or India with $400 would have been much better off. But then by halfway through my trip the Indian economic miracle had increased by tenfold the Indian per capita income.
“Still there are more than a billion people living on less than $300 per year. With over a billion people being chronically malnourished or dying from starvation, we have a long way to go to increase the standard of living for most of our human brothers and sisters. Then there are the problems of food costs that are emptying the rice bowls of the impoverished.
“There are a couple of problems however. In a democratic world would the people of Connecticut vote for reducing their incomes by 90%. Another factor is that if the money were taken out of the hands of the governments and industries there would be no money for development, unless the recipients of the $3,500 either decided to give some money to the government for development or decided to invest in the stock market. And how many stock brokers will have the train fare to make their daily commute from Connecticut to New York while earning only $3,500 a year?
“If our life values were in our heads and our hearts rather than in our wallets perhaps we wouldn’t mind sharing everything. But having the rich nations adopt the collective generosity of the Salvation Army, Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer—or even Robin Hood—is a bit too much to expect when the media tell us that more is better, and keeping is better than giving.
“When I left for outer space many of the ‘haves’ lived in apparent luxury, while the “have-nots” lived hungry, in filth and squalor. Today, to my amazement, some of the former prosperous nations are poorer while some of the former third world nations have gained great economic advantages. The keys to both paths have been the approaches each country has taken to control or foster their national birth rates. The most startling and yet enlightening changes have occurred through various methods of decreasing populations. Especially for those countries that are now licensing parenting.
“And what about health care. Socialized medicine sounded like a good idea. The British National Health Service has over a million people waiting for hospital admission. While its stated objective is to have no one waiting more than 6 months for an operation nor more than 3 months for an outpatient surgery appointment, those dreams become more remote as the population increases—and ages. Even in rich Norway, a country with no national debt and a huge oil income, the main hospital of its capital city finds people bedded in the halls, set off from the passers-by by screens. And with the exception of the newer additions, few rooms have televisions to help patients while away the painful hours. Operations, if not emergencies, are often scheduled rather far in the future, but if the Norwegian surgeons don’t get around to you, you will probably be sent to another country for the surgery.
THE NOT SO GOOD LIFE FOR TOO MANY CHILDREN
“But the major problems I see relate to a large part of the world’s children. Perhaps I am a romantic, but when I hear of infants being raped in Africa, I cry. Whether it is the superstition that sex with a virgin will cure one’s AIDS or whether it is merely a sexual attack by a deranged coward—it should not happen. South Africa has the highest AIDS rate in the world. By 2025 AIDS had killed over 40 million Africans. The number of children orphaned by HIV is an international tragedy.
“And what of the many thousands of children, both boys and girls, who are the unwilling participants in the child sex trade—pawns of the pedophiles in hotel rooms or in the available pornographic media. No mature adult could bring himself to think or do such unseemly acts. Yet there are many supposedly upright citizens who revel in this sickly game. Should any child be subjected to the cruelty of such sadistic mentally ill adults? Then there are numerous societies that allow slavery of one sort or another, such as the Haitian children whose parents farm them out on that anti-slavery island, or the African children who are sold outright as slaves.
“Just look at Cambodia as an example of how HIV/AIDS has cursed the population of children. While over 150,000 orphans of AIDS afflicted parents will test positive for the disease, another 100,000 AIDS orphaned children will not test positive. What kind of a life is it when the parents have died and there are no orphanages to take in these waifs? Even if this poor country could build and staff one orphanage a day it could not take care of the avalanche of parentless children.
“But it is not only the poor children who are endangered by overpopulation. As advanced countries expand their atomic power generating capabilities they build the nuclear targets for suicidal terrorist fanatics to attack. Rather than blowing up a 12 passenger bus or a high rise building, the nuclear fallout of a blown reactor can kill or maim millions—millions of young and old, good and bad, religious and non-religious. Look at the ‘crack’ and alcohol syndrome children of addicted parents. Rich or poor, child abuse is a continual reminder of the plight of unwanted children.
“You may be familiar with the U.S. Center for Disease Control study in 2008. In studying 900,000 infants during their first year of life they found that one in 43 infants suffered serious abuse or neglect, a third of them during their first week of life. And one in 180 were killed. The physical abuse included beating, kicking, biting, burning and shaking; neglect included abandonment, maternal drug use or failing to meet basic needs like housing, food and clothing. The results were similar to a Canadian study.
“To avoid this cruelty should prospective parents be required to take a course in infant care in order to be licensed? Or do you think this cruelty to infants should be allowed to continue? Or possibly the drug addicted parents found in the study should not have been allowed to parent until they were clean? Should society do something to save that one in 180 who was born then killed? Children have been abused so much throughout history and throughout the present day world. I don’t think it’s right. I think something should be done about it. The only solution I can come up with is some kind of educational and licensing program.
“Then there are the centuries-old traditions of marrying children. While it is often against the law, it is tradition. Mali and Bangladesh are among the worst offenders. The girls are deprived of an opportunity for education and the chance to make their own life choices.
OLDER NATURAL METHODS OF POPULATION CONTROL
“It all relates to too many people and to too few good parents. The older methods that have historically controlled population have been reduced. Wars are so horrible that countries now occasionally try to avoid them. Infanticide is becoming less and less common. Legal abortion, while much safer today than in the past and safer than childbirth, often has strong antagonists. Famines still come and go but don’t kill enough people to make much of a difference to the exploding population. A million deaths here or there doesn’t dent the billions who roam our overcrowded home. And the advances of medicine have increased life-spans by eliminating or reducing the microbial scourges of the past, such as smallpox. And while AIDS has eliminated a large number of the population, it still hasn’t taken the comparable toll that the Black Death did in Europe centuries ago.
“Still, disease and famine have been only temporary respites in the damming of the timeless flow of the geometrical increases in people’s progeny. Laws and customs have to be changed. We need more than natural disasters to cope with the calamity that is already here. But there aren’t enough earthquakes and tsunamis so we need intelligent action and we need it now.
“Population control is not a novel approach in either the animal or the human kingdoms. Lemmings take their fatal leaps to oblivion. Humans have practiced contraception, abortion, infanticide and suicide for millennia. Whether it was the Spartans of ancient Greece exposing their babies on the hill letting the elements determine which were the strong and which should die, or the African tribes that take the newborn of every young father into the jungle to be eaten by the animals.
FROM THE PAST AND INTO THE FUTURE
”In the period starting a few years before I left and continuing during the twenty years of my voyage, many nations had intelligently come to grips with their major problem and had—through intimidation and reward, through law and ideal, and through education and science—begun to slow the raging river of ever increasing births and to turn back the tide before humanity was wiped out by its own reproductive thoughtlessness. “It is not as if the creative handling of one’s population is new. In the voyage of Gulliver the First he encountered the Houynmnnms, those very intelligent equine-like creatures who limited every family to two children, one male and one female. They also had worked to select the breeding so that their nation could continue its high level of existence. They even traded children among families so that a better balance could be achieved for their race and their nation. And now there are some signs that such intelligence occasionally works on our planet.
“I hope that I will learn something on my planned visits around the world, then I’ll be
able to actively advocate for the plans that seem to be essential for the intelligent and joyous survival of the human race.
THE OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM HAS NO POSITIVE SOLUTIONS
“It took over 50,000 years for the Earth’s population to reach one billion people. That was as recently as 1804. In 123 years, in 1927, it added its next billion. Then in only 33 years, in 1960, it reached 3 billion. In only 14 more years there was another billion. It reached five billion in 1987, just 13 years, then 12 more years to reach 6 billion. But then things started to slow a bit. It took a whopping 14 years to reach 7 billion. It looks like it will take 15 years for the next billion, and we will reach 9 billion before the century’s midpoint. The number of people added to the world from now until 2050 is about the same number that lived on the planet in 1950. I have heard academic projections of America having a billion people in 80 years and India reaching 2 billion in 60 years.(1a) I don’t believe it will be that bad, but there are warnings that the infrastructures of the countries must be upgraded beginning now. There seems to be no end to the dire projections of world population. And nobody suggests limiting the population, only providing for it—and we can’t provide for those we have now.
“Treating AIDS victims with anti-retroviral drugs has reduced the number of expected deaths by over 30 million. This keeps the victims reproducing longer. Conquering other diseases also extends life spans and enlarges reproductive windows. Poor countries like Afghanistan, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Niger, East Timor and Uganda are projected to triple their populations by mid-century. Thank goodness for the nearly 50 countries that are reducing their native populations. Countries like Japan, Germany, Italy and South Korea would lose population if they didn’t take in immigrants from poorer countries.
“In the 1990’s it began to become evident to the more economically advanced countries of the western world that several factors were making it impossible to care for their citizens from cradle to grave. Earlier retirement in many countries opened jobs for younger workers—who paid the taxes necessary for the pensions of their elders. Longer life spans aided by advances in medical science and governmental or private health plans increased the need for more tax money to fund the health needs of those retirees. Jobs became more scarce as machines did the work of the unskilled and some of the skilled workers. Machines cut the wheat, picked the grapes, and built the cars and houses.
“Even skilled workers were needed less. Computers replaced accountants and many researchers. They calculated complicated medical operations while robots performed them. Were it not for the aging populations with their increased illnesses, many doctors and nurses would have been societally superfluous.
“Fewer people were needed to do the work of the advanced societies, but even though the birth rates per woman had fallen in most advanced countries, the longer lived citizenry more than made up for it in the burgeoning population.
“It seems that each modern decade has its special problems. The 40s required the surrender of the German and Japanese aggressors. The 50s were quiet, but the times pushed the productive citizens toward more monetary goals while the taxes rose to take care of the education of the war babies. The 60s saw an increase in the cold war between the East and the West as it ushered in the self-centered times of the hippies—and sex and drugs became major avenues towards reducing the psychic pain of the earlier decades. The 70s recognized the problems of pollutions and the rape of the environment. Since the 80s the upheavals of Communist governments in the East allowed the western people to rest a little easier but the violent fanaticism of religious zealots endangered many countries. Crime families disrupted the cities and youth gangs terrorized neighborhoods. The 21st century began with violent selfishness, nurtured by Hollywood, bringing out the worst in human emotions and behaviors.
“It became more evident that the major cause of our greatest earthly problems was rooted in our excess of population. But more than just too many people, there were too many unloved people—people born without the expected parental legacies of tenderness and caring. The poorest children among us were starved for food, but so often the children of the rich were starved for love and humanity—in an unethical uncaring society. It was evident that we not only had to reduce the gross numbers of babies being born, but we had to do our best to make certain that those who were born had the opportunity to grow into functional, loving, humanitarian citizens of the world.
“But more, the modern level of technology requires a more intelligent citizen to provide for the needs of the world’s society. Shades of Hitler? No, because we have to recognize that intelligent and moral people come in every color and in every religious persuasion. Hitler was looking for perfection in only a small part of humanity—his Aryan ideal. So the ingredients in any eugenic approach to improving our collective lot would obviously come from every corner of our globe and every segment of humanity.
“In today’s society there is no longer a need for chambermaids. Hotel rooms, just as private houses, clean themselves electro-magnetically at the touch of a button. Robots prepare the meals that the few executive chefs plan and input into their computers. Modern society does not need the drones required in the Middle Ages to till the soil and construct the cathedrals. It needs only highly skilled architects to plan those cathedrals. It needs the truly creative artists, the master musicians, the computer engineering geniuses—and it needs thinkers to help put it all together. But the common women and men, the blue collar workers are extremely worried. They think the government should provide for them, to place them in jobs they can perform. But the jobs they could perform have gone the way of the village blacksmith and the firemen who shoveled coal into the bellies of the puffer bellied steam engines. Intelligent people with high level educations are needed as technology fuels economic globalization.
“If Nietzsche were alive today he might say “I told you so.” Plato might see his Republic unfolding with human intelligence as its soul. And Aristotle would marvel that a just society might really be possible.
“Well Chet, you know that the major purpose of my voyage was to find planets or moons that we could inhabit. I found none. Years ago it was suggested that the maximum number of people that the planet could support was about 2 billion. How do we handle the plethora of people and how do we develop a universal good life with no poverty, no wars, no ecological problems.
“A few people are trying to educate the literate people about the problems. I have to join the fray If people merely hope that the problems of overpopulation, global warming and unloved children will somehow just go away—it will never happen. Merely hoping or wishing that the problems will go away will guarantee that nothing will happen. Remember that Ben Franklin said that ‘He who lives on hope will die fasting’ because ‘You may delay but time will not.’
“You well know that the idea of controlling population is not new. My ancestor’s biographer, the Reverend Jonathan Swift, made “a modest proposal” in the early 1700s. His idea was to prevent the children of the poor people of Ireland from being a burden to their parents or their country. He suggested that eating the little rascals would be a double blessing—healthy protein for the adults and fewer waifs on the streets. It would keep their mothers from begging for food for them and allow the ladies to work at more appropriate jobs.”
—“But
Commander, as you know Swift was a satirist and wrote his essay with
his Irish tongue in cheek, not honestly advocating a baby’s thigh
in his teeth!”
—“Yes
it was satire, but he was honestly concerned with the lack of care of
the poor by the landowners and administrators. And don’t we have
the same thing today? Starving and diseased babies in the Third World
countries and so many unloved children in the rest of the world. I am
firmly convinced that it is every child’s birthright to have food,
safety, education and a loving family and society to give every child
the physical and mental nutrients to make his or her life worthwhile.
As Martin Luther King said ‘There is scarcely anything more tragic
in human life than a child who is not wanted.’
“I plan to visit some of those countries that have licensed parents, and some that haven’t, and see what possibilities there are for reducing the total population and what can be done to guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to every baby born into our world. They deserve no less.
“I realize that to reduce population, and especially the idea if licensing parents, not only goes against the traditions of the human race but it is definitely a politically incorrect idea. This is especially true in countries that call themselves religious or democratic because either God told us to have a bunch of babies or because our ideas of liberty include the freedom to not only have as many babies as we want but also, in many countries, the idea that the government should provide for them. Then we have the idea, especially in the U.S. that allowing for abortion is a politically incorrect action.
“But the ideas of what causes or actions are politically correct changes. The right, even the necessity, to own slaves was accepted when our Constitution was written, then less than a century later it was illegal and generally frowned upon. The idea of the God approved practice that women should be the homemakers and subject to their husbands has given way to having more women than men in college and the right for women to succeed in business and politics. The politically correct idea that Jews and Asians should be kept in lowly places has given way to the reality of Jews, Chinese and Japanese outperforming their Anglo-Christian counterparts particularly in the business and medical fields. So the ideas of the traditionalists and the idealists often change with time. But none of these threats has required a sudden reversal of tradition in order to save the race. Science affirms our common sense, that millions of people are dying from starvation and diseases, that people have caused our global warming, that people who shouldn’t have been born are murdering and raping innocents, and that the world can be a better place.”
—“Thank
you commander. I recently saw a British television program that
looked at the ecological footprint that each person born there
causes. I remember only a few examples. The average Brit drinks over
2400 gallons of milk in his lifetime. He eats four cows, 21 lambs,
fifteen pigs, and 1200 chickens and over 13,000 eggs. Each of the
animals eats grain that could feed many starving people and each is
producing methane through their flatulent farting. The methane
produced is the second biggest problem in global warming. But if we
could capture the methane given off by one cow in one year it would
provide the power of 50 gallons of gasoline. And of course some
people have powered their cars with cow and chicken manure for years.
“But back to the needs of that one Brit. He will eat over 5,000 apples and over 10,000 carrots. The amount of plastic and paper used to package the food he eats will total 8 ½ tons of garbage. The newspapers he reads will add another two tons of waste. He will produce 2,400 tons of feces and will need over 4,000 rolls of toilet paper to wipe himself. How many trees will he use to produce the paper he uses? He will buy 8.5 cars and will use 135,000 liters of gasoline to power them. So that one little bouncing bundle of British joy is a disaster for the planet.
“The more facts that are registered by my overloaded brain, the more I agree with your concerns. I certainly wish you luck. I’ll help where I can. With problems like we have it is certainly a mistake to do nothing if I can do only a little. And if we can do more than a little, we must. Hope is useless without goal directed effort.”
A MORE IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE PROBLEMS
During the week that followed, Chet dutifully broadcast the weekly briefings sent by NASA. There were the somewhat detailed experiences of Commander Gulliver on each planet. There were the reports on the analyses of the soil, temperature and atmosphere. But there was nothing about the commander’s concerns with overpopulation or parent licensing. And of course there were the self-congratulatory hosannas for the project and the government’s funding of it. So Chet dutifully waited for the end of the debriefings so that he could get the real story—the story that would shock and excite his audience. Finally on Friday afternoon he got his chance. Commander Gulliver appeared at the concluding news conference. The commander fielded a number of questions from the media. Even Chet asked about Saturn’s rings, but he didn’t want to ask about the real story of what Gulliver saw the best solutions to the problem. Those were to be his scoop. As the press conference ended, Chet moved to the exit doorway to catch the hero as he made toward the door that opened into his new world, the world he had left behind twenty years earlier, a world more ensnarled with problems than Loki could have dreamed. Chet had to wait several minutes for the Commander to move through the swarm of newsmen. As the entourage ebbed toward the exit he found his chance to make his connection.
-------------------------
—“Commander,
now that your debriefing is finished and you have had a few days to
relax, do you have some time for a more in-depth interview?”
—“Sure,
but can we do it at my home in Malibou Lake? I want to enjoy the
unencumbered feeling that I missed in my space capsule and the four
walls of these offices that have confined me the last few days. I’d
like to breathe some fresh air.”
—“How
about Tuesday at 10.”
—“Great,
come for breakfast. We can sit on the deck and visit for a couple of
hours.”
—“I’ll
be there.”
Lemuel spent the weekend relaxing, seeing old friends, swimming in the lake and even took a few swings on the long thick rope that hung from the giant oak on the island. Just like when he was young! Climb up a few feet to the first big branch, grab the rope, swing out over the water and do a one and a half into the lake. Being free of the space suit and the encumbering cabin made him feel like a kid again.
He swam over to McLaughlin’s dock and went for a sail with Dave Mac in his Malibou class tall mast sailboat. Dave invited him to race in the weekly three lap trip, down to the dam, back to the island then west around the buoy.
He was prepared for the weekly summer race on Sunday. It had been a long time since he’d raced and the light summer breeze barely coaxed the boats along. Thirteen boats were entered today. McLaughlin and Gulliver placed a mediocre seventh. Not like the old days when they usually won.
A neighborhood bar-b-que was held in his honor at the club. So many old friends and so little time to share with them. By 2 AM he had to head up the hill to the home his father had built in the 60s. What memories! He had lived there often during the summers while in high school and college, as well as during his early bachelor years. What a great retreat. After teaching and coaching during the school year and taking courses for his Ph.D is astrophysics at UCLA, then lifeguarding everywhere from Dockweiler to Zuma, he needed a place to unwind. With the tennis court next to the house, the Universal Gym downstairs and the lake a quarter mile away it had everything to keep his body sound to match his sound and active mind.
Nights were magic. Sitting on the expansive redwood deck he looked up at a heaven dotted with a million microscopic suns and the planets he had so recently visited. It was like being in the planetarium at the Griffith Observatory, his favorite place in LA.
Like his father before him, he was entranced by the sparkling quilt of lights that covered the sleeping city. On clear windy days he would cut his college classes and drive to the Griffith Observatory, on the south slope of Mt. Hollywood, to admire his city. From downtown to Santa Monica, from Glendale to the harbor, out past Hollywood over Palos Verdes to Catalina Island, what a view! Being up high, even though seeing only a small patch of the globe, invigorated his mind. Then at night he would eagerly await the planetarium show.
The giant black insect-like machine, the Zeiss planetarium, was perched in the middle of the 75 foot diameter white plaster dome. Then the lights dimmed to the strains of Beethoven and the blackened dome metamorphed into a crystal Sahara sky as the planetarium shot the images of 9000 stars on the blackened dome. Then came the planets and the moon. The clear celestial fantasy, an unknown phenomenon to those who live in lighted smoggy cities, brought gasps of wonder from the viewers in the circular theater. Probably only the Bedouins and Eskimos find this natural source of ecstasy in their daily lives.
Then came a famous planetarium show—‘The Constellations’. ‘A Trip to Mars’, ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ and probably a hundred more. Lemuel had used it as his favorite destination for his dates with girlfriends both in high school and college.. It was not only inexpensive, but it charged his imagination. It charged it enough to push him into the pursuit of a doctorate in astrophysics and astronaut training with NASA. And eventually to pursuing the passion of his dreams, the twenty year tour exploring the heavens.
Just like the carefree days before the voyage, he filled his days with friends, exercise, sleep and relaxation. Monday finally faded to Tuesday morning and there was Chet’s red Porsche pulling up outside his bedroom. He jumped into his blue UCLA shorts and hustled to the door. Chet grabbed his recorder and notepad and walked to the steps. He looked a bit different, having doffed his newsman’s uniform of coat and tie for a sporty golfer’s outfit—a short sleeved autumn tan and light green striped shirt with matching green Sans-a-Belt slacks. He had the biceps of a gymnast, something hidden from his TV audience by his mandatory ‘6 o’clock News’ suit coat and tie. As all anchormen, he was handsome. Mid-fifties, full head of graying brown hair and a smile that put everyone at ease, no wonder his program had been ranked number one for years. Even if he just sat and smiled he’d have all the women in the nation gawking. But he consistently got the inside stories that escaped his competition. Nine Emmy’s in a row for the best news program.
--------------------------
—“Well
Chet, you made it to my hideaway, eh?”
—“Yes
commander, what a view!”
--
“Let me walk you around the deck and point out a few things. You
know, this area was developed by some early film stars as a getaway
in the 1920s. Clark Gable and C.B. deMille were among the original
owners here. My dad almost bought Gable’s old hunting lodge. It’s
on the other side of that ridge. But he bought this mountain top and
built the house himself. Can you see that road beyond the white
bridge on the far end of the lake?”
—“Ya.”
—“Up
to the right of that you can see the intersection with Mulholland
Drive. Just to the right is Ronald Reagan’s old ranch. He used to
jump his horses right there. But he sold it to Twentieth Century Fox
as part of their movie ranch. The ranch extends about four miles east
to Malibu Canyon Road. Twentieth sold it to the state, so it is now
the Malibu Creek State Park. Malibu Creek comes into the lake up
there beyond that white bridge, then at the south end of the lake,
that is below the house across the street, there is a dam that
creates the lake. The overflow from the dam continues as Malibu Creek
and it flows to the ocean south—in that direction.”
—“Wasn’t
‘Mash’ filmed around here?”
—“Yes.
The TV version was filmed about a half mile south, in that direction.
The movie was filmed about a mile east of here. Is ‘Mash’ still
in re-runs?”
—“Oh
ya! Probably will be forever. I think it was the best program ever on
television.”
—“Me
too. In the old days all the movie companies had lots here. See that
mountain across the lake? That’s the original Paramount mountain.
They haven’t used that figure for years but you still see it in old
films. Just beyond it is a western town that has been used for years.
‘Dr. Quinn’ was shot there. Hundreds of films, television
shows and commercials have been made in the area, on Kanan Road, on
Mulholland, at the lake. They’ve even used my house on
occasion.”
—“Do
any film stars still live around here?”
—“I’ve
been away so long that I don’t know. Charlie Sheen used to live in
that house on the other mountain top. Kelsey Grammer lived down the
way on Cornell. Bob Foxworth lived on this side of the lake. My next
door neighbor was Strother Martin. He was the Southern prison warden
in “Cool Hand Luke” who said to Paul Newman ‘what we have he-ah
is a fail-ya ta communicate.’ That is one of the most famous lines
ever uttered in a film.
“The most famous actor I ever met was James Cagney. His daughter Casey lived just down the street. One Christmas afternoon I was napping in bed, resting from a long night of assembling toys, when I heard footsteps on my redwood deck. I looked out the bedroom window and there were James Cagney and Ralph Bellamy, with Casey’s husband Jack. I jumped into my sweats and met them at the kitchen door. Cagney gave me an autographed copy of his autobiography, that Jack had helped him write.”
—“You
must have hundreds of stories, having been born in LA and living
here. But let’s get on with the interview. Let’s try to summarize
your thinking from your twenty years in space.”
--
“Certainly Chet, shoot a question or three!!”
ABOUT SPACE
—“What
was it like being in space? What did you think about? Didn’t it get
boring?”
—“Probably
the major feeling I had was how insignificant I am, and we are, when
you realize what infinitesimal specks we are on our planet, in our
galaxy, and in our universe. But then each of us thinks of ourselves
as being all-important and having infinite worth. Some of us believe
that we have been placed here by a divine creator and some of us
believe that we are mere bits of cosmic dust, nearly 14 billion years
removed from the Big Bang. Are we only remnants of billions of
evolutionary processes who are still evolving. Or are we at the
end of our evolution, rapidly becoming the victims of the suicide or
our species?
“Little did Edwin Hubble know, when he confirmed that the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang, that he would have a space telescope named for him and that the findings of that telescope guided me on a human’s farthest voyage into the universe. While I wasn’t able to even reach the outermost planet of our solar system, and certainly could not approach a planet outside of our system, the work of Hubble and his namesake telescope have been incredibly important in making this voyage possible.
“The telescope can measure the distances to 18 galaxies, some as far as 65 million light years away. Since light travels at 186,000 miles per second a light year is about 6 trillion miles. That’s a long way! It’s incomprehensible. It must be halfway to infinity! We are getting more information and proof of dark matter and dark energy so we are getting a better picture of the dynamics of the universe and of its beginning.”
—“We
know the speed of light. What’s the speed of dark? Couldn’t
resist that! By the way Commander, do you know that the U.S. national
debt is over 15 trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. Even more
incomprehensible than the expanse of the galaxies. Fifteen trillion
dollar bills, that if laid end to end, could reach Mars and return to
Earth about 1300 times.”
—“But
that’s another problem, Chet. Let’s get back to the universe.
Measuring the expansion of the universe it is now possible to see
that the universe is almost 14 billion years old. 13.7 to be exact.
We have seen 1,500 galaxies in various stages of development. Some as
old as 10 billion years. And it all started from a small bit of
matter, probably smaller than a teaspoonful. In about a trillionth of
a second the Big Bang exploded into the seeds of our expanding
universe. At least that’s the thinking now!
“Since the Big Bang, millions of species have evolved and died out, usually from things beyond their control. Our species also seems to be heading to oblivion, and it’s our own fault. We have used a great many of our irreplaceable natural resources and we have polluted our water, our air and even our stratosphere.
MAKING A BETTER LIFE
“Do we have even a faint hope of saving ourselves from extinction? If so can we make a better life for our species. There were a few glimmers of hope, like when I found that there was water on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, but to get the necessary heat to support human life would have required us to dig deeply into its crust. That, and the fact that it is only a few miles wide and takes seven years to get there, rules it out for a future home for our excess population. Maybe some day a time machine or an astral travel mechanism can be invented that would make emigration there a possibility. But that won’t solve today’s emergency. The fact is that the human race is approaching extinction because we are raping our Mother Earth.”
—“That
seems rather pessimistic commander. Your voyage began with such great
hope. Have you given up?”
—“Not
at all. I sincerely believe that we have a real hope for our future,
but it can’t be realized unless people can see the problems,
understand their consequences and solutions, and are willing to
cooperate immediately to save us from ourselves. But the solutions
would require that the richer people of the world give up some
advantages that they have traditionally enjoyed. They certainly must
think of working more years before retiring. They need to adopt a
toned down appetite for the accoutrements that many people equate
with the good life—like housing opulence, when a smaller dwelling
would do. And probably most important, a state mandated reproductive
control. This would probably only have to last for a couple of
generations until the world’s population came under control and
people would finally recognize the increasing scarcity of Mother
Nature’s blessings and work to conserve what we have left. It goes
without saying that we must severely reduce the negative excesses
with which our so-called advanced societies have polluted the planet.
As the historian Arnolds Toynbee said, ‘The human race’s
prospects of survival were considerably better when we were
defenseless against tigers than they are today when we have become
defenseless against ourselves.’
“When people are too blind to see or when their vision is too narrow to focus, we have real problems in getting things done. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. The intellectually blind stonewall any real progress because they cannot see alternatives. Their minds are made up before the issue is even stated. Getting the ignorant to think is like leading an army or rocks. There won’t be any movement.
“In spite of the fact that human history is largely a chronicle of tragedy, with wars and natural disasters killing millions upon millions, people keep thinking that things will get better even though the evidence is stacked against it in an impenetrable wall. Every scientific and historical fact shows that we cannot survive with this many people, even if we significantly reduce our opulent way of living. We can dream the impossible dream with Don Quixote, the man of La Mancha, but the dream that we can support the present world population in the style of the average Californian is not only ephemeral, its reality can never be. We may be embalmed by a hope for our future, but death is sure if we don’t skid to a stop in our population growth. Then we must quickly get it into reverse if we are to survive. It is my mission to get the people to understand the reality of impending doom if we don’t change course quickly. Too many people are like the queen in Alice in Wonderland who said that sometimes she believed in six impossible things before breakfast. We have to make people believe in the possible and make the necessary changes in their national objectives and in their personal lives. We have got to do it—not just dream or talk.”
—“As
I remember Toynbee also said, in his best psychological insight, ‘A
life which does not go into action is a failure.’ Sounds to me like
you are ready to go into action.”
—“Ya,
that was one of his observations that got me charged up to do
something. But it’s not enough to just save our species. Nearly all
human lives can be happier and more productive. Ashley Montague, my
favorite social thinker, and Sigmund Freud, not one of my favorites,
agree that for our mental health we need the ability to love and to
work. Mental health is certainly a key to happiness, but there is so
much more.”
—“People
have been warning against robbing and trashing our planet for decades
and little has been done. How would you expect to make a difference
Commander?”
—“I
would hope that my relatively high profile will get me an audience.
The U2 singer Bono got a worldwide audience because he was a famous
musician. Bill and Melinda Gates had notoriety because of their vast
wealth and philanthropy, and the way Microsoft had changed the world.
Mother Theresa gained unwanted fame through her quiet charity.
I don’t have the rabid following of a famous rock singer, or the
reputation of a genius or a saint. I don’t have the riches to make
a rapid change in a society’s economy or health. But I have been on
the international stage through the news media daily for a number of
years. And I do have the passion to help humanity if I can.”
—“How
would you start your crusade?”
—“Well,
it’s about the three Es—ethics, economics and education.
Certainly voluntary population control has come to many countries
that have a high standard of living because of the people’s
education and economic means. Their ethics, relative to having
children, have often been based on a self-centered system of morals.”
—“Are
you saying that recognizing our selfishness is imperative to limiting
the population?”
—“No,
but it is important. Women who want careers may not want children.
The joys of professional success may be more meaningful for some than
the potential joy of having children. Most sociological and
psychological studies show that childless marriages are generally
happier than those with children. Of course many marriages are
greatly enriched by children. “Another disadvantage of having
children, for some people, is the cost of having and raising a child.
For a middle class family in the United States the cost is calculated
to be 150 to 450 thousand dollars plus college costs. British
studies estimate child raising costs to be 60 to 250 thousand pounds
to age 17. These costs obviously include food, clothing and medical
care, but they probably also include pre-school expenses, a bigger
home, more electricity, summer camps, a car when the child gets to
high school, increased insurance costs, and a number of other
expenses. These expenses hit hard at the poor, but they also impact
the middle class families who are aspiring to be upwardly
mobile—keeping up with the Joneses.”
—“So
economics is a major factor in reducing family size?”
—“Yes,
that and the realization of the costs of children—in time and in
money. If you are a middle class couple, having a child will
probably preclude your taking that trip around the world, enjoying
some operas in Verona or Milan, spending a week at Club Med, or
relaxing after work with a good book. Many people realize that what
they want out of life is more likely to be realized without
children—or without a partner. But tradition is deeply ingrained in
most of us. To break that tradition by being unmarried or childless
will likely make us the objects of scorn by those wedded to society’s
traditions.”
—“So
you are saying that selfishness is not necessarily bad?”
—“No,
Chet. If it makes for happier people, that is good. If it helps
reduce the population, that is good. If it stops people who would not
be loving parents from having children, that is positive.
Having every child born being given every advantage possible is an
even more important goal of mine than reducing population. We must
have parents who will provide for the physical and mental needs of
their offspring.”
—“This
is where you are getting into ethics and values. What other ideas do
you have in these areas?”
—“I’ve
been studying the areas of ethics, morals and values for a long time
but I don’t have the answers to these enduring questions of living
intelligently. I have been invited to visit Kino by Professor Wang. I
expect to learn more about how our value systems can be made more
user friendly. Obviously today not everyone looks to religion for
their values. Religions can give us a certainty that we all would
like, but history is replete with religiously unethical behavior by
the proponents of every belief. Catholics fought Protestants.
Protestants fought each other. The Muslims fought them both and each
other. History seems to be nothing more than religions and wars, and
religions were the instigators in many of those wars.”
—“What
about economics? Do you propose a leveling of wealth?”
—“No.
I’m definitely not a Marxist—farthest thing from it! But through
education and opportunity we can give everyone a shot at intellectual
and economic wealth. Education, as I see it, is the process of
teaching people to think intensively and to think critically.
Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education. I
know you have been to Royce Hall at UCLA and seen Josiah Royce’s
words that ‘Education is learning to use the tools that the race
has found to be indispensable.’
“If we use the right tools economic wealth in the world can be increased. But there still isn’t enough to go around and give everyone the equivalent income of today’s average American or Brit. The other day I mentioned the wealth of the world when I left. It was about $3500 per person. Now I’ve had a chance to update it to today in 2025. If we were to divide the total wealth of the world, estimated at 55 trillion dollars, by the approximate population of the world, somewhere around 7 billion people, if each person got an equal share it would amount to about $8,000. I would guess that several people with more than eight thousand dollars would not be willing to let go of what they have that is in excess of $8,000. If you own a house worth $250,000 you will need to share it with about 30 other people. If your only possession is your $8,000 five year old Mercedes, you can keep it all for yourself, but you couldn’t keep your clothes or your furniture.
“While it doesn’t make any sense to play a communist Robin Hood, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, the world can do a few things to keep the money where it benefits the citizens. Just look at the uncommonly corrupt leaders in Africa who have feathered their economic nests with the wealth stolen from their nations’ foreign aid gifts by the ‘do good’ countries. If they don’t steal it outright, they own the companies that service the firms founded on foreign money—the cleaning services, the copy machine maintenance companies, the
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