FUTURE OF MAN — MATHER 227 



It is in the yearning for freedom, the love of beauty, the search for 

 truth, the recognition of moral law and in the awareness of spiritual 

 forces that human nature is distinguished from all other sorts of 

 nature. Man shares with other animals the need for satisfactory 

 economics, for adequate food and shelter, for the goods essential to 

 existence, but his needs transcend these physical factors because his 

 nature differs from theirs. Probably nine-tenths of all the words 

 that have been used since the dawn of speech in reference to "human 

 nature" have referred to those elements in the nature of man that are 

 shared with other animals rather than to those that are jnan's unique 

 possession. It would be far better to concentrate upon the latter and 

 thus to distinguish human nature from animal nature. 



Regimentation may be good for man as an animal; through that 

 type of social organization his need for goods may be efficiently sup- 

 plied. But regimentation is certainly not good for human nature as 

 thus distinguished. Experience verifies what wisdom foresees ; regi- 

 mentation stultifies the spirit, destroys personality, standardizes 

 thought and action. Worst of all, regimentation means stagnation of 

 the creative process and, as we have seen, stagnation among the more 

 complexly organized vertebrates has led inevitably to extinction. If 

 man: attempts to live by bread alone, mankind commits collective 

 suicide. Apparently the best and perhaps the only chance for man- 

 kind to succeed in the quest for security is through progress in the 

 art of living on a high spiritual plane rather than through exclusive 

 attention to the science of existence on a purely physical level. 



To put this same thought in more specific terms, it means that coor- 

 dinated activity directed toward efficient organization of individuals 

 must become cooperative activity directed toward the enrichment of 

 personality within an efficiently organized society. This requires both 

 intelligence and good will. 



Fortunately, these characteristics are uniquely developed in the 

 species of placental mammal with which we are preeminently con- 

 cerned. Man is a specialist in the use of both. The trend of the past 

 5,000 years may well continue, despite numerous temporary setbacks, 

 throughout the next few centuries at least. 



It is sometimes suggested that because man has specialized in brains, 

 brains may cause his downfall, just as presumably the overspecializa- 

 tion in external armament contributed to the downfall of certain 

 herbivorous dinosaurs. That argument by analogy is, however, 

 heavily punctuated with fallacies. There is as yet no evidence that 

 mankind is weighted down with a superabundance of intelligence. 

 On the contrary, it is failure to act intelligently that endangers indi- 



280256 — 41 16 



