SELECTED PAPERS 



that a few years ago a book had been published with the self-same 

 title. After acquainting myself with its contents, I determined to deal 

 with my subject in a somewhat larger framework. In the book, pub- 

 lished shortly before our country too became involved in the war, the 

 psychiatrist Meerloo has tried to analyse the human factors that 

 cause wars. In particular I was struck by the passage : 



Is 'not all mutual conflict abolished by a still greater external dan- 

 ger, in the case of people as well as of countries? Were Mars to engage 

 in a war against the Earth, the United States of the World would be 

 an accomplished fact.' 



Now it seems to me that as yet there is little prospect of an inter- 

 planetary war, notwithstanding the fact that the recent developments 

 in radar technique have permitted the establishment of an initial con- 

 tact with the moon, and that the first terrestrial rockets may soon 

 reach it. If, therefore, cooperation of mankind would have to await 

 such an interplanetary war, the prospects would be very dim. But in 

 this connexion the question arises whether the dangers to which 

 mankind as a whole is exposed must needs be of extraterrestrial or- 

 igin, which immediately leads to the second question whether man is 

 actually the undisputed ruler of the earth he generally fancies himself 

 to be. And if the latter question should have to be answered in the 

 negative, is it not then indicated, nay, imperative that mankind unite 

 in order to stave off the threatening dangers? 



Viewed in this light it seems advantageous to stir up the recogni- 

 tion that mankind is indeed exposed to pressing dangers. We must 

 clearly realize that, apart from man, an immense number of other 

 forms of life are engaged in the struggle for existence on earth. And 

 wherever life encounters life there will be strife; contest for space, and, 

 especially, for food. It is altogether insufficiently appreciated that 

 man, too, is fully implicated in this struggle, and that the issue is far 

 less certain than the large majority of the ignorant among us appears 

 tacitly to assume. Hence I shall discuss a few episodes of this struggle 

 which man has had to fight from the moment of his appearance on 

 earth. Obviously the emphasis will be on the fight against invisible 

 life, i.e., the microbial world; but it must be pointed out that more 

 highly organized beings also constitute a real threat. 



There is but one enemy of Homo sapiens, and probably the most 

 frightening of all, whom I shall deliberately disregard; this is his 



394 



