JULIAN HUXLEY 
The problem also has important psychological aspects. In 
rats and other mammals, excessive crowding seriously distorts 
behaviour: there is much fighting, and the normal processes of 
reproduction are interfered with. There can be little doubt 
that some comparable neuroendocrine disturbance occurs when 
human beings are overcrowded: there is increasing frustration 
and irritation and the resultant tension can readily lead to out- 
breaks of violence and other anti-social behaviour. 
The world needs a population policy. We must stop thinking 
in terms of a race between the production of food and the pro- 
duction of people; we must begin thinking in terms of a balance 
between people and the various resources they need. To achieve 
this, we must balance death-control with some form of birth- 
control, with the immediate aim of reducing the rate of popu- 
lation-increase and the ultimate aim of achieving a balanced 
adjustment instead of an unbalanced maladjustment. 
To do this we must first of all overcome a great deal of moral, 
ideological and religious resistance. This can only be done by 
helping people understand that to oppose proper methods of 
birth control is radically immoral since it condemns an in- 
creasing number of human beings to increasing misery, frustra- 
tion and ill-health. 
Meanwhile, all advanced nations should devote an increasing 
amount of scientific and technological manpower to discovering 
and perfecting simple and acceptable methods of birth-control, 
and making their discoveries freely available to the rest of the 
world. For another thing, international aid should take account 
of what I may call the demographic credit-worthiness of the 
recipient. If the aid is likely to go down the drain of excess 
population, the recipient country should be encouraged and 
helped to initiate an efficient policy of population-control, and 
some of the aid should be devoted to seeing that the policy is 
effective. 
We must also make the world at large aware that the whole 
future of mankind is endangered: if present trends continue 
unchecked man will become the cancer of the planet instead of 
the guide and director of its further evolution. 
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