LUTHER GULICK 137 



forget that man, including urban man, must always move and live 

 and have his being in his total environment, not separately in each 

 of the neat cubbyholes which the experts have laid out to facilitate 

 technical analysis. 



Except in his own eyes, and we hope in the eyes of the Creator, 

 man is just another animal, albeit a social animal. 



In any case, man occupies his habitat and can exist, can prosper, 

 can multiply only as he fits the total environment. And when man 

 modifies this environment with his clever hands and inventive brain, 

 he introduces new equilibria, ever-changing like a kaleidoscope, the 

 end results of which may be less hospitable to the human species 

 than the "balance of nature" within which man started his long climb 

 to knowledge and power. 



For this reason, mankind needs to proceed with due modesty, for- 

 ever exploring the interrelatedness of his world and devoting his 

 ingenuity and creative talents more to living within the flow of na- 

 ture than upon the accumulated resources of his planet. 



While this precept of the life-balance system is for all of mankind, 

 it is of special significance for metropolitan man now, not alone be- 

 cause of his more involved and heavier dependence on resources, 

 but because his apparent detachment from nature leaves him aloof 

 and insensitive to the life system of which he is forever a dependent 

 part. 



The shortage mankind needs to guard against is not the exhaus- 

 tion of the limited resources on this small planet. The shortage to 

 fear is the lack of brains, character, spirit, leadership, and political 

 competence. The depletion of land, water, and other resources could 

 bring the prodigal son back to his senses, but his salvation will be 

 found only in cultural conversion and in the arts of politics. 



Every day we postpone the appropriate research and the educa- 

 tional and political action now called for will make the problem 

 more difficult. As Homer said, only yesterday, "It is not meet to 

 stand here wasting our time or idly loitering, for there is still a great 

 work to be done." 



