Ah, the pitiful farmers! This greedy egotism is the (historically and socially inevitable) pathetic mentality that has been deeply implanted in the farmers who for generations have suffered from the poverty brought about by cruel plundering. Was this the reason Marx chose the city laborers as the soldiers in his revolution instead of the farmers?
* * *
To say "Refuse to sell food!" or "Down with the cities!" seems extremely cruel and subversive, but it is nothing compared to the unmitigated robbery and tyranny that the city has committed during the last five thousand years.
It Is the Plundering and Destructive Idlers Who Are theSubversive Elements
When we say "Down with the cities!" we do not at all mean that we should kill all the city dwellers. We are merely saying, "Give up your extravagance." We are saying, "Stop your insatiable plundering." We are saying, "Dismantle that mechanism of plunder." We are saying, "Let us create a society of austerity in which all practice direct cultivation." [34]
Why is it cruel and seditious to say "Give up being a robber"? Why is it wrong to say "Stop driving others into poverty so that you can, by their sacrifices, live an extravagant life"?
Long ago the farmers, no longer able to bear the burden of harsh exploitation, sent representatives to the feudal lords to plead for reductions in the amount of rice they had to send as tribute. The reply was, "You insolents! Do you not fear your master? Such effrontery cannot be forgiven!" And they were decapitated. This is outrageous. The insolents were the feudal lords (idlers) who, in order to continue their own extravagance and gluttony, cruelly robbed the farmers. And their spirit of idleness comes all the way down to our modern city. Even now if we were to say, "Stop plundering for your own extravagance!" "Stop destroying for your own ease!" or "Be satisfied with a life of austerity!" the city would surely consider us subversive elements, and look upon us with severe disapproval. The real subversive elements are the city dwellers themselves, who continue their rapacious and destructive ways as if it is their natural right, who nonchalantly continue their lives of convenience, while contentedly patting their fat bellies.
Should We Be "Thankful" for Urban Civilization?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, there are many who believe that the flourishing of civilization and culture is more important than anything else; that the city, the value of which is absolute, is contributing 100 percent to such; and that the city is sacred and must not be desecrated. Though I have already said quite a bit on this subject, I would here like to go into it in a little more detail.
For example, the believers say that the civilization of the Shinkansen train and the jet has made considerable contributions to politics, economics, and culture. A company of singers that performs in Tokyo at noon can give the same performance in Osaka in the evening. "Is this not a wonderful world we live in?" they say. Who are they kidding? This silver-tongued, idiotic lot of singers, these idle and gluttonous bloodsuckers, go from Tokyo to Osaka on the Shinkansen which wastes incredible amounts of energy, assaults our ears with noise, and runs on rails over the concrete ties which are destroying the land. Then in Osaka they sing the same idiotic songs. Now, tell me what I should be thankful for. Should I be thankful for the activities of such people who, with each passing minute, bring about the increasing devastation of the Earth?
Politicians can take jets to other countries, thereby enabling them to take care of important political affairs in little time, and the believers claim that this is a blessing of our modern urban civilization. They say that the ability of international traders to jet to other countries and quickly conclude business deals is due to the same. And they say that, thanks to the jet civilization, it is possible for old and young alike to freely go to other countries, learn more abut the world and soak up culture.
Let us not be fooled. When politicians hurry to other countries by jet and confer with other politicians, it is almost always to insure the progress and prosperity of their own countries. And as I have said before, progress and prosperity are inseparable from environmental contamination and the destruction of the Earth. Should we really be thankful when politicians, in order to discuss such things, jet to other countries, destroy the ozone layer, waste energy, produce noise pollution, and do it all with tax money?
When international traders (the "economic animals") go to other countries, the purpose is of course to plunder the developing nations, or to suck up to the industrialized nations (although an overabundance of merchandise in their warehouses is clearly the result of squandering resources and squeezing labor to produce more than is necessary, they believe implicitly that this state has come about because other countries do not buy, so they try to hard-sell more by dumping). Should we be thankful that they hurry by jet to other countries so that they can cause trouble for the developing countries and cause more trade friction with the industrialized countries?
Everyone and his dog are going to foreign countries these days. Quiz programs on television usually bait people with promises of foreign travel. What are all these people whizzing off to other countries for, on the jets that boast of being the worst polluters? Is it to see the rare beauty of foreign scenery? Are there no mountains in Japan? Is there no ocean? There is little difference between the ocean at Boso and that in Hawaii. In the mountains near their homes there are places they are unfamiliar with. All those people who have no time to consider the appearance of a single tree, to feel the pathos of a single blade of grass — what do they expect to experience abroad? Is it that the scale is different? If you pine after magnificence, then stand where you are and look up at the sun's great orb. Lift your eyes to the night sky and gaze at the cosmos.
What? Your want to research foreign sexual customs? You lecherous slobs! [35]
Travel abroad in the name of study and training is none other than for the purpose of learning the techniques of idleness and gluttony, or to make preparations for contamination and destruction. Even in Japan there is much of this going on, but in whatever country it is the extreme of evil. Are we supposed to be thankful when people go abroad for sightseeing, sex, or study, and then come back bug-eyed with amazement? Are we supposed to be thankful that, because of their activities, the Earth is more devastated minute by minute?
The "wonderful world we live in" is the "city." We must take drastic measures to get rid of the city.
Even If We Do Not Eradicate the Cities, They Are Fated to Perish
But the city has underestimated the situation. "If you think it's possible to get rid of the cities, then go ahead and try," it says. "What can you accomplish in your frenzied condition?"
Well, this certainly is true. Once the city realizes that it is impossible to banish currency or get the farmers and co-ops to stop food shipments, it is natural to sit back and relax, for the city is right.
However, let us note once more that, though we cannot get rid of the cities by our own actions, the cities are in actuality bound to perish (I will treat this in a later chapter). The city's underestimation of the situation will lead to its own fall in the near future.
The depletion of mineral resources, the drying up of the oil fields, nuclear war, the destruction and contamination of the environment, food shortages, economic panic, computers, robots, overproduction, backlogged inventories, trade friction, violence by the unemployed — these will all lead to uninhabited cities. But the city's swaggering, unconcerned attitude toward these things will only bring about a crises state that much sooner. As long as the city continues to underestimate the dangers, to waste without a moment's afterthought, to make more nuclear weapons, to urbanize farmland, to change the forests to desert, to contaminate the land and the sea, to develop convenient machines, to produce an overabundance of goods — as long as the city continues in this manner, how many more years can it live without a care?
The prophet Nostradamus, who has been 99 percent accurate, says that in July 1999 the Great King of Fear will come down from the sky, and humanity will face annihilation. This would seem to be right on target, since the cities are heading for destruction at full speed, and will probably perish at that very time. Unfortunately, this bit of prophecy cannot but hit the bull's eye.
There Will Be No Cities in the Twenty-First Century
The cities are bound to perish, and they have not long to live. Even if we do nothing but stand by and twiddle our thumbs, the cities will suffer automatic annihilation.
There will be no cities in the twenty-first century. It is nonsensical to believe that in the next century the Earth will be covered with 20 million cities. This is almost the same as the estimate that, should the population continue to increase at the present rate (and assuming the absence of epidemics, war, and starvation), population density 700 years hence will be such that there is one person per each square foot, including the mountains. If people estimate that in the twenty-first century 20 million cities will swell to cover the Earth, then it is for that very reason that the cities will perish. And if they estimate that the population density will become such that there is one person for every square foot of land, then it is for that very reason that humanity will perish.
There is no doubt that this will come to pass. The rails have been laid, and the city is rolling along right on course. From whatever angle, and with however sympathetic eyes, we look at the city, we cannot but conclude that it is bound to perish by reason of the urbanization phenomenon itself.
Even now, Nostradamus is surely watching from afar, boasting over the accuracy of his prediction, and laughing at the insatiable progress, prosperity, and obsessive delusions of us human beings.
I will say it once more: The cities are bound to perish. Even if I were to swing at the ground with a maul and miss, there is no mistake in predicting so. Even if the sun rises in the west, and even if the rivers run upstream, there is no way to stop the annihilation of the cities. Verily, in the next century the city must make reparations for its 5,000 years of wickedness.
The Only Way to Save Ourselves and the Earth Is to Cut OurselvesOff from the City
But if the cities are bound to perish anyway, why not just let things go on as they are? many will say.
The fact is, we cannot just sit around and wait for it to happen, because it will then be too late. The cities are trying to ruin the whole Earth in order that they themselves will perish. We must not allow ourselves to be dragged down with them. Though it may appear cowardly, we must cut ourselves off from the cities before that time comes.
Cutting ourselves off from the cities will first of all help prevent their further expansion, and begin their contraction. And this is not impossible, for our ancestors long ago did the same thing. Let us not allow this to be a mere dream; let us try to use that one slim chance given humanity and the Earth.
Now is the Time to Escape from the City
I now appeal to the people in the city to give up those white collar jobs and get out of the city.
If even one of you leaves the city and takes up farming, that makes possible the contraction of the city by 1/9,000,000th. It also makes possible the lessening of the city's evils by the same 1/9,000,000th.
Escape from the city is not only the victim's flight from the city, which he feels cannot last much longer, but it is also a withdrawal from the position of the malefactor — those accomplices of evil, the city dwellers who refuse to budge.
And I also want to appeal to those in the farming villages to stop producing vast quantities of food, and to embark on self-sufficient farming.
For every one of you that ends your dependence on the city (actually the dependence of the city on you) and becomes an independent farmer, we will be able to chase 1/90,000,000th of the city's population out of the city, and reduce the city's evils by the same amount. (At present 10 percent of the Japanese population farms, and the other 90 percent lives in the cities. This works out to one farmer feeding nine idlers, so for every one farmer that stops feeding the city, we can shrink the city by nine people.)
The city is, of course, perfectly free to feed itself with food imports. It can import all the vegetables, fruit, meat, and eggs that it likes. When the time comes, the president of Sony can take charge.
Becoming an independent farmer — I can call this the "BagwormRevolution."
The combined effect of leaving those white collar jobs and becoming an independent farmer will without a doubt prevent the expansion of the cities and begin their contraction. I am sure that this is the one ray of light, the one hope, we have of assuring our survival, and we must take advantage of it before the cities see their final collapse.
29
Optimists will say, "Humanity will not necessarily perish because of the cities. As a matter of fact, it is not impossible that, because of the progress of science and technology, we will perpetuate ourselves by the acceleration of prosperity." But before coming at me with this counterargument, they must prove the following: ->
that no matter how many resources we squander, they will never run out. ->
that no matter how much we contaminate the atmosphere and the oceans, it will not affect living things. ->
that the more drugs and food additives we ingest, the healthier we will become. ->
that matter (trash) is not imperishable, that it can be destroyed. ->
that the more land we cover with concrete, the greater our chances of survival. ->
that nuclear weapons were made so that they would not be used (in other words, that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were exceptions).
And there are still zillions more that they must prove! And what is really important is that the opposite of each one of these zillions is extremely easy to prove.
30
See E. Herbert Norman, Ando Shoeki and the Anatomy of JapaneseFeudalism. Reprint edition published in 1979 by UniversityPublications of America, Inc. (Translator's note)
31
A term of Shoeki's which means that all people grow their own food. (Translator's note)
32
This blind faith is implanted in us, on a national, yea, an international scale, from the time we are in elementary school, and we have come to the point where there is no greater "faith" than this.
To the question, "Science is the standard for everything; if we cannot believe in science, then what must we believe in?" one must reply, "There is only the Way of Heaven. The Way of Nature is a cycle with neither progress nor development; wild animals commit themselves to this cycle and live out their lives this way. Blind faith in science is a privilege given only to human beings, but unfortunately they will perish in the near future because of scientific progress.
33
The land in Southeast Asian countries is the precious means of food production to those who live there (there are also the forests which maintain the ecosystem and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen for us). It is preposterous to abandon the agriculture of one's own country and invade another. Such arrogant corporate minds crowd the cities of the entire world so that now reckless development runs rampant in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Amazon basin, and desertification and devastation of the land proceed at an astonishing pace.
It is said that "before civilization there are trees; after civilization there is desert," and this will probably come to pass since the land is being sacrificed for the sake of today's prosperity, and in time we will find the survival of all things on Earth (including ourselves) seriously threatened ("The Twenty-First Century's Warning," special program aired on NHK, November 8, 1984 at 8 p.m.).
34
Japan has six million hectares of arable land, and this works out to five ares per person. One person can probably grow enough on five ares to live. It is therefore possible for all 220 million Japanese to become direct cultivators. Let them sing songs, draw pictures, and make trinkets and gewgaws during the time they are not working in the fields.
35
The author is referring to the so-called "prostitution tours" in which Japanese men allegedly travel to Southeast Asian countries to shop for many things, including women. (Translator's note)
The cities will perish of their own accord, [36] but we do not know exactly when that will happen, and we must in the meantime work for the contraction and decline of the cities. It is therefore necessary for us to immediately begin building a society in which it is possible to live without the cities. We need resolve, mental preparedness, countermeasures, and a warmup.
Helping the City Perish so that We Can Make the Escape
To build our resolve and begin our warmup we must prepare for the collapse of the city. Without a rehearsal our resolve is a mere fantasy, and our warmup is nothing more than flailing our arms about without throwing the ball.
How can we, during this time when the city still stands grandly before us, bring about conditions under which it will perish? There is only one way, and that is to disengage ourselves from the city. Looking for a way to avoid the evils of the city while at the same time receiving in full the blessings of urban civilization is like trying to get milk from a bull. There is no difference at all between this and the Zen priest who, while attired in a resplendent brocaded robe, preaches to people on how to rid themselves of earthly passions. "Disengagement" from the city is the first of the preparations we must make in order to get ready for its collapse, and it is also a means of shrinking the city.
So disengagement from the city comes first — but this is easier said than done. Once one makes the attempt, one finds that there are countless obstacles, and that virtually all of them are difficult to overcome since they are not of our making (for example, a lack of courage or resolve), but are obstacles put in our path by the city.
The Structure of the City Does Not Readily Permit "Disengagement"
For example, the city (government) commands us to pay taxes. "Since, as a citizen of the state and of your local government, you receive their benefits, it is only natural that you be required to help support them," it explains. And what happens if one replies in the following manner? "You make it look that way, but in actuality tax money is none other than the capital for the nourishment of state power and for your compulsory, excessive services. With your power and services, and with the farming villages as your springboard, you maintain the urban social structure, develop the urban economy, spur on urban prosperity, and protect and nurture urban civilization and culture. I do not need the blessings of the nation-state or of the local government, and so I'm not going to pay taxes." And with that they come to take it from you, a classic example of power in action. Should you remove them by force, you are arrested and thrown in prison. * * * The city also orders us to pay for education (textbooks, school supplies, transportation, uniforms, etc.). "Education is necessary," says the city, "so that you can live as a member of modern society." Our reply is, "Though it first appears that way, education in actuality only teaches people how to be idle and gluttonous. It merely teaches people that which is used for contamination, destruction, and waste. I do not want to pay money for education that endangers the future of humanity." The city comes back with, "Don't you realize how helpful education is in the formation of human character?" "Are you telling me that one of the gifts of education is the skillful concealment of evildoing by those in positions of power? Wild animals receive no education, yet we see not one criminal among them." At this the city waves tradition, custom, and the constitution in front of us, and finds a way to force education on us. * * * Shrines and temples (these are also the city) try forcing us to contribute money. "That family over there gave some tens of thousands of yen; the family next door donated several thousand. Please give what you can…" It is only natural, they say, that the believers (?) bear the costs of decorating the temples and buying new robes for the priests. "You idle and gluttonous bloodsuckers! The insolence of you to try and clothe yourself in warm robes and fill your bellies, without tilling the soil, by the mere glib chanting of some sort of incantation. I won't give you a single red cent." And at this their eyes emit fire and they reply with a threat: "You'll pay for this! May the gods (Buddha) punish you immediately. In the near future you will be visited by calamity, so get ready!" And then they continue to press for donations through the back door by sending the shrine or temple representative who is some influential citizen of the village. * * * The farmers' co-op comes to ask for help in raising more capital. "The co-op is a cooperative union which exists for the sake of the farmers. It is natural that the members must come up with the capital to support the co-op's activities." "The coop as a union for the farmers exists only in charter; in actuality it is operated solely for its own benefit. Is this not the reason the co-op, whether it be loans or sales, constantly exploits the farmers? It is as if the co-op has switched from 'cooperative union' to 'corporation.' I cannot give you money for capital which will be used for corporate profits, or to exploit the farmers." And the reply is, "So you have no need for loans or farm machinery or fertilizer, do you? Well then, don't come crying to the co-op when your crops are destroyed by blight or weevils!" * * * The United States tells us to stimulate domestic demand in order to redress the trade imbalance, and the politicians join the chorus, promoting aggressive fiscal policies (throwing wads of money in every direction), and insisting that we must vitalize the economy. Of course the manufacturers are delighted, and put pressure on us to Buy! Buy! However, we have reached the saturation point, and cannot consume any more; we have no more time or energy to expend on consumption (our drawers are full of clothes, our houses are full of all manner of electrical appliances, and our bellies are ready to burst; we have to play golf, we have to travel, we have to play pachinko and mahjong, we have to enjoy our stereos and video recorders, we have to read newspapers and weekly magazines — all 24 hours of the day will not take care of it). We don't want anything else; don't come at us with the need to stimulate domestic demand, we say, but they counter by asking if we are traitors who intend to stand by and watch as our country goes down. It's all right if your belly bursts, so eat more bread! Use a car for only one year and then trash it and buy another! Wear clothes only once and then throw them away! Forget and leave your camera at the station! Throw your watches in the ocean! And so the government and corporations imperiously demand. Let us note incidentally that Japan became a trading country precisely because there was no hope for an increase in domestic demand. If there is a trade imbalance because of excess exports, they ought to address the cause. In fine, it would help much if they would stop overproduction. It does not make any sense to compete with other manufacturers in overproduction, and then try to shove the products down people's throats. Could we hope that they won't try to solve this problem by war?
The Only Possible, Sensible Way Is the Practice of "IndependentFarming"
We have seen, therefore, that it is virtually impossible to disengage oneself from the city completely since the city clings to us tenaciously. It is said that when Saigyo [37] was ready to leave on his sea voyage he kicked his own child away from the boat — that is, he shook off earthly passions — and departed resolutely. However, the city will not bow out so readily; with the strongest manacles (and, when the need arises, with police, courts, and the military) it tries to prevent our leaving. This cannot be helped. If we cannot then completely rid ourselves of the city's entanglements, then we must allow only the least possible involvement with the city, and shake off the major restraints it imposes on us. Let us do as the lizard does when it flees, leaving only the tip of its tail. There is no other way to flee from something that clings to us like our very shadow.
To be specific, the only way to accomplish this is to practice "independent farming." Unless we do this, there is no way at all to escape the city. For example, let us say one quits a white collar job and takes up painting in order to support oneself. This will not do, for unless one is recognized by the city for one's art and is compensated for it — that is, joins the plunder activities of the city — then there is no way to make a living. Indeed, such activity is the city itself.
Independent farming, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, is natural cycle farming, which depends upon nothing but Nature; animal and human wastes are returned to the soil, and the produce of the land then feeds the animals and human beings. As long as one continues this type of farming, there is no room for the city — government, co-ops, manufacturers, corporations, and consumers — to butt in. One is self-sufficient and independent, and there is no fear of failure whatever may come.
Reducing One's Contact with the City to the Least Possible Extent
These are the basics of readying oneself for the demise of the city. If one does just this much, then it does not matter when the city perishes. However, during the transition period, one cannot escape the entanglements of the city, so while receiving in the smallest measure the blessings of the city (that is, while supplying the city with only the smallest amount), we ready ourselves for the impending demise of the city, decide how to deal with it, train ourselves for it, and continue to deepen our relationship only with Nature. And this is also the best way to bring about the contraction of the city.
Let us now, in light of the foregoing examples, see how one can, while beginning the practice of independent agriculture, lessen one's ties with the city to the maximum possible extent. * * * The more money one makes, the more they take in taxes. If one has only enough income to barely get along, then under the present tax system it is not necessary to pay very much. However, it seems that one is still bound to pay local and prefectural taxes. * * * Compulsory education as required by the constitution cannot be helped, but we should think carefully about anything more than that. The universities, in particular, are none other than training facilities for the Contamination and Destruction Reserve Corps, [38] so we must regard them as the enemy and stay away. The only education necessary to independent farmers is the farming methods peculiar to their family and region as passed on to them by their parents, grandparents, and village elders. The study of anything more than that is the sham egotism of the urban economic society, the urban competitive society, the urban cultural society, or the urban glory society.
If the co-op threatens us with no more loans, no more fertilizer, and no more agricultural chemicals, this is actually something to be thankful for, since to natural-cycle, self-sufficient agriculture such things are needless and harmful. Since the co-op cannot force us to do things as the government can, it is all right to refuse their every request without worrying about being arrested and thrown in jail. * * * Since religion is a narcotic used as a means of plunder, one must resolve never to fall for any of their tricks. The only thing we need consider important are the laws of Nature. Though it was never possible for the gods and Buddha to be Good, they make them look like a bundle of Good, and, using this to their own advantage (that is, for plundering), they make judgments concerning Good and Evil; it is this deceptiveness of the established religions which we must pass judgment on. The judgments of the gods and Buddha must be those of Nature. Truth, equality, cold impartiality — the Net of Heaven lets no rebellion against Nature go unpunished. If the religions use the magisterial authority of the gods and Buddha to extort, establish themselves in idleness and gluttony, bring about the contamination of their food by joining the city in exploiting the farmers, and take part in the city's plundering, prodigality, and destruction, then Nature (the gods) will surely make them pay.
Even if one says, "Stick it up your nose!" to the gods, one will not be punished, but no matter how much one prostrates oneself before the gods, if, at the same time, one contaminates the Land and food by spreading agricultural chemicals on them, the gods (Nature) will surely visit one with cruel punishment. * * * Independent farmers must be mentally prepared for a life of austerity. So it should not be worth getting excited if, quite suddenly, things like televisions, cars, cameras, computers, videotape machines, pianos, refrigerators, and washing machines disappear from our lives. Having them is convenient, but even if we do not have them, there should be no problem. In fact, such things only bring about sloth, obesity, and surfeit, not to mention the pollution engendered by their production and use. It is stupid to shackle ourselves to the city for such things.
Just because we cannot go see a play or take a trip does not mean that harm will befall us, so there should be nothing to worry about. Living without such things does not even require the aforementioned warmup; as long as we have our minds made up to live without them it does not matter even if they disappear tomorrow. Though it may be all right if we make occasional use of needless things during the period of transition, we must not run after them crying when the time comes to bid a final farewell. No matter how often the government and big business enjoin us to consume more in order to improve the economy, we should calmly ignore them. We must not forget that the best action we can take to bring about the contraction of the cities is to live a life of austerity, and to stop giving them so much food.
What Do We Need Most in Order to Guarantee Our Survival?
In order to keep themselves alive, what do wild [39] animals want, search for, and find value in? They desire no government, they desire no agricultural cooperatives, they desire no education or learning, paintings, travel, glory, or praise and recognition (no medals and awards). They desire food (finding food sums up their existence) and a simple place to sleep. And a little sex once or twice a year…
With only those things wild animals find everything they need to live out their lives. To them, all other things (like education, government, religion, the Tee Vee, automobiles, travel, and medals — that is, the city) have not the slightest value whatsoever. Even automobiles worth millions of yen, and paintings worth billions of yen are not worth a pig's tail to them. It is only human beings who madly seek things which are, to the sustenance of life, utterly worthless, thereby bringing upon themselves incalculable harm, and hurrying down the road to ruin.
Human Beings must Learn from Wild Animals
It should be quite evident, then, what is most necessary for survival. The sun, air, water, the land — these are by far and without a doubt the most precious things to us. Yet, even if we do not seek them, Nature will give us unlimited amounts free. Or perhaps one should say that it is always there in the form of "Nature itself"; as long as we do not contaminate it, destroy it, or cover it with concrete, it will always be there for us. Just as with wild animals, if human beings have food, a modest dwelling, and clothing, it is possible to survive, self-sufficient and independent. Most other things are add-ons, playthings, luxuries, trouble, disaster (like recessions), and poisons (like cigarettes and food additives).
Therefore, indispensable to us now is preparation — a warmup — this in order to get the things we really need. As for all other things, especially those which are to Nature worthless and harmful — convenience, extravagance, ease, glory, praise, and all other urban paraphernalia — it would be best to shut them out of our lives from the start.
One does not need gorgeous clothing. The desire for beautiful clothing is the desire for a means to conceal one's own shortcomings. Clothes make the man, as they say; trying to increase one's own value by dressing in fine clothes is a way of advertising one's own worthlessness. A uniform is a means of boasting of the city's power; military uniforms, medals, parliamentary ID tags, and priests' splendorous robes are all means of domination devised to make people bow down before them. And decorating armor and helmets, which are supposedly meant to ward off arrows and swords, was the creation of display calculated to impress, not only one's enemies, but also allies and common people with one's majesty.
If the stable boy gets nice clothes, then why not a military uniform on a fox, and a fancy kimono on a badger? But whether or not their status rises as a result is another matter. First of all, they hate wearing such troublesome things, and will show considerable resistance if someone tries to put them on; you may not be able to get them on the animal at all. It is because they are natural. And it is here that we find the difference between the city, which is built upon human law, and wildness, which finds its foundation in the law of Nature.
The purpose of clothing is to ward off the cold and to keep from getting wet in the rain. If need be, we should be prepared to cut a hole in a gunny sack for our head and wear that. And we should wear light clothing, because it is best for our health to expose our skin to the outside air. Let us begin preparing ourselves right now.
Preparation for our Escape from the City
Concerning living quarters: Putting up grand buildings, equipping them with all sorts of conveniences, and decorating them lavishly is, just as with clothing, done to boast of one's own greatness, and in order to satisfy one's desire for convenience, extravagance, and ease. And most important, in order to build such structures, precious resources are used unsparingly, great destruction and contamination are wrought by the mining, transport, and processing of the said resources, and great amounts of pollution are generated by the use of such homes or workplaces. What is more, this increase in the number of buildings causes the further decrease in the area of the country, and the cities continue their expansion.
There is no limit to the desire for an anti-Nature, modern urban lifestyle. Small or old houses are continually being torn down (the remains are discarded in the country or in the ocean), and big, new buildings are put up. They call this the development of the cities, but just as I have demonstrated, this development is actually what is threatening the continuing existence of the cities.
It was some foreigner who made fun of Japanese houses by calling them "rabbit hutches," and a certain idiotic Japanese critic then used the same expression as an instrument of self-deprecation. However, Kamo no Chomei [40] demonstrated that a ten-foot square hut was quite big enough as a place to live. If the population continues to increase at the present rate, without war, epidemics, or famine, in 700 years we will reach a population density at which there will be one person per square foot, including the mountains. It seems to me that it would be much more important to put up with living in rabbit hutches and saving our farmland.
Living in cramped, stuffy apartment buildings and falling on your face every time there is an earthquake is naturally the price one should pay for living in the city in order to realize a life of ease. If you do not like it, then leave the city and go to live in the country. Build a log cabin in the country and live there. Even if it is destroyed by a typhoon or an earthquake, you can repair it the very next day. What is more, you can repair it by yourself, without the help of anyone else.
It would do us well to prepare ourselves by learning how to build the sunken dwellings of ancient times. We should ready ourselves by recognizing that it is best for human beings to live on a dirt floor.
Is It Possible to Produce Food without the City?
Concerning food: The intervention (interference) of the city (that is, the secondary and tertiary industries) in the production of food is considerable, and for this reason it has become possible to produce great quantities of high-yield crops with reduced labor. If the city's participation were to disappear it would mean the instant disintegration of this production system, and agriculture would be dealt a severe blow. At least this is the way the city boasts of its superior position, and causes the country to bow before it, cutting a magnificent figure.
But we should not worry too much about this. The kind of agricultural system that would become unable to function without the city is actually none other than a suck-up-to-the-city agriculture that is locked into the city's plunder system. However, to natural cycle, small-scale, self-sufficient agriculture, the city's meddling is actually a nuisance; as long as we have the blessings of Nature there is not the slightest difficulty. The object of the city's interference is to continue plundering the country.
There is here perhaps one thing we should be aware of, and that is the necessity of certain tools — not tilling and threshing machines, but such things as sickles and hoes. Without the help of the city it might be difficult to find such things unless we revive the part-time blacksmiths of the Edo Period or earlier. In former times the part-time farmers who made water conduits, baskets, and sifters lived in every village. When they were not working in the fields they made and repaired farm implements and household goods. But since their main occupation was farming, they had little time to make such things, and thus did not become real merchants. They do not make things to sell, but when they were asked (modern industries that produce too much can learn something here). And there should be no need for large-scale iron works if they get the raw materials from iron sand as the swordsmiths did.
Abandon Anti-Nature Urban Dietary Habits
The city haughtily tells us that we must have, if not refrigerators, electric rice cookers, propane gas, blenders, artificial flavoring, and sugar, then at least essential items like pots and bowls and salt, and that without such urban blessings we would not be able to go on living. But let us not get excited.
If there be a need, we should be ready to do without even pots and bowls and salt. And if at the same time we make up our minds to do without such things, and begin the preparations for a new dietary life, we begin to see to what extent urban dietary life is anti-Nature, and how it is leading us down the road to self-destruction.
Wild animals all eat what is natural for them to eat. Squirrels eat nuts, cats eat mice. Should we ignore this simple fact, feeding mice to squirrels and chestnuts to cats, neither will be able to go on living. This is the great iron hammer of Heaven that falls on those who ignore these laws.
What an animal naturally eats is decided by instinct, and instinct here is preference, and the ability to obtain what it needs. A cat is not able to eat chestnuts, nor does it care at all for the taste or flavor of chestnuts; a squirrel, on the other hand, has the claws and teeth with which to open and eat chestnuts, and it finds them quite delicious as well.
But how about human beings? Extremely clever and arrogant as they are, human beings ignored the laws that governed what they should eat. Learning how to use utensils, fire, and various seasonings, they were able to eat things which, originally, they could not eat, or should not eat.
The things human beings desire and can obtain and eat without the use of tools or fire are, for example, nuts and fruit, plants, seeds, potatoes, small fish, and eggs (if you give a monkey an egg it will skillfully break the shell and suck out the contents — monkeys and human beings naturally eat the same things). So it is that, no matter how much of a brave and strong Tarzan one is, it is probably quite impossible to catch and butcher bovine animals and whales with one's bare hands.
The Human Diet: Crime and Punishment
By the use of utensils, fire, and seasonings human beings changed their natural diets, thereby increasing almost limitlessly the things they can eat, and by transforming themselves into hunting, eating animals, have increased their numbers dramatically. On the other hand, however, they weakened themselves physically. Not only that, they also process their natural foods with heat and seasonings, thus killing the life within their food, destroying the cells, and substantially decreasing the beneficial effects of the food. Thus if we do not stuff our bodies full we cannot get enough nutrition, and this has brought about the transformation of the human being into the greatest eating animal on Earth.
Note first of all that human beings suffer serious tooth decay, something we don't see much in wild animals. We catch colds all the time. We are troubled by chronic digestive disorders (only humans use bathroom tissue; if an animal is healthy its excrement will not stick to its body). We perspire profusely (since perspiration is a means of getting rid of wastes, sweating a lot is proof that one's body is full of sewage; no matter how hot it is, one should perspire only moderately). And in recent years we have come to live in fear of chronic illness brought on by the compound effects of many chemical substances that are foreign to our bodies.
Though the net of Heaven is course, it has not overlooked the human rebellion against our natural diet. The fact that human beings have barely managed to survive in spite of this is due to the fact that we have continued, as we should, to consume some fruit and vegetables raw. Raw vegetables with meat, pickled vegetables with white rice, and fruit for dessert.
Our Modern Diet has Brought about Sickness and the Weakening ofOur Bodies
Utensils and fire and seasoning — the great transformation in the natural diet of human beings, and the great rebellion against Nature. This is known as cooking or cuisine. And in cooking we find the following three regrettable elements:
1.
How can one, using utensils and heat and seasonings, make it possible to eat things which one cannot ordinarily eat?
2.
How can one make things taste good, and stuff a lot into one's stomach?
3.
How can one destroy the life and cells of one's food, thereby diminishing its effect? What we must be aware of here is that even the provincial cooking of a hundred years ago varies not a bit from these themes, and even if we look back 50 or 100 thousand years, there is little difference. They say that our remaining canine teeth prove that primitive human beings were carnivorous animals, but I do not believe it. Almost a million and a half years ago human beings had already learned how to use fire, thereby changing their natural diets. Canine teeth were no doubt used to open and eat chestnuts and other hard nuts.
Human beings are born with both fists tightly clenched. If you put a stick in a baby's hands it will hang from the stick, and if you lift the stick, the upper half of the baby's body will follow. If you provide some stimulus to the soles of its feet, the baby's toes will bend as if they are trying to grasp something. This indicates that, even now, the structure of the human body is adapted to climbing trees in search of fruit and nuts, and it has changed little from millions of years ago. This also shows that there ought to be no change in the human diet, either. It was, after all, quite impossible for human beings to become lions or hyenas.
In addition to (or in connection with) the three elements of cooking described above, human beings have committed further crimes: They have changed the shape and appearance of their food, pulverized it, analyzed it, extracted it, mixed it, and compounded it.
Wild animals eat what is natural for them to eat, and they eat it in its original form, thereby obeying this iron-clad law of Nature. Thus they maintain their health without a single doctor, a single pill, or a single hospital. It is only human beings that make brown rice into white rice; remove the hull of wheat and grind it into white powder; remove the head and bones of fish, leaving only the soft flesh; separate the fats from milk and make it into butter; or extract vitamins and make them into pills. Because of this it is only human beings that suffer from corpulence, undue loss of weight, sickness, and early aging and death. Seeing that they were in trouble, people then founded the nutritional sciences, and began calculating everything — consume a certain percent of this, so many grams of this, or so many milliliters of that. But it turns out to be half-baked, for we can see that the results of those school lunches, which are models of nutritional science, are fat and sickly children. Just compare these children with wild animals, which do not study the nutritional sciences, but manage to keep themselves fit and trim.
Let Us Begin Training Ourselves to Eat Things Raw
We ought to begin training ourselves to eat things raw and in their original form, and we should eat things that we can obtain with our bare hands. Even if it is only a handful a day, we should try eating brown rice, wheat, and corn (not to mention fruit and vegetables) raw and unprocessed. We should not underestimate the positive effect of even this little bit. Eating even one grain raw will do us that much good. The net of Heaven is coarse but lets nothing escape — those who make light of one grain of brown rice will find themselves bound by the erroneous idea of "permissible levels." There is no gainsaying that, for every one milligram of food additives one consumes, the liver suffers correspondingly. The law of permissible levels, which is convenient for the manufacturers of such additives, is not to be found in Nature.
One must chew a hundred times and secrete three cupfuls of saliva in order to eat a handful of uncooked brown rice. It is impossible to eat it otherwise. Is the reader aware that the hull portion of cooked brown rice passes through the gut and is found in great quantity in one's excrement? This is the result of cooking the rice in order to make it easier to eat, but if one eats it uncooked the hull too is well chewed. In saliva there is a hormone called parotin which helps order the body's functions. What is more, chewing something hard strengthens the teeth, and also stimulates the working of the brain.
In addition, the real flavor of something is revived by eating it raw. For instance, if one eats and compares raw corn and cake, one is well aware of how the cake is a tasteless lump of dead matter, and how the raw corn is most delicious, and overflowing with life force. Just try offering a lion raw and cooked meat, or a chicken wheat and crackers, and see for yourself which one they will choose.
For those people whose sense of taste has been artificially deadened and who claim that they cannot eat raw food because it tastes terrible, I offer the following advice: Go a day without eating and then try it. And those who have bad teeth and cannot eat raw grain can grind it into powder with a stone mortar and knead it with water.
Health Recovery and Food Conservation: Eat it Raw
If you eat cooked brown rice instead of cooked white rice, you will need only two-thirds as much, and if you eat the brown rice uncooked, you will find you can eat only one-third as much. By making white rice one discards the best part, and by cooking it one kills the cells and the life within; thus, in order to take in sufficient nutrients, one must stuff great amounts into one's stomach. By eating it uncooked, one needs only one-third as much. If you cook your greens you can eat a lot, but uncooked you can only eat about one-third as much.
And this leads us to a great discovery — that eating things raw and uncooked contributes substantially to food conservation. A special program on NHK noted that, in the event that food imports were totally halted, even if we made all our golf courses and superhighways into bean and potato fields, still 35 million people would starve to death. But if we ate all our food raw, all those people would be saved. In addition, by eating things raw there would be no leftovers. It is said that in Japan cooked and killed leftovers that are discarded amount to 10 millions tons a year, but if we eat, for example, brown rice and corn uncooked, then there will never be any leftovers.
And even if we converted all our rice paddies to organic production, causing the yield to drop to one-third, there would be no shortage of rice even under present conditions if everyone ate uncooked brown rice.
It Is the City that Needs the Country
So we have seen that, just as I wrote earlier, eating things in their original form, as well as unprocessed and raw, can contribute to the recovery of health. In addition, it will also help conserve food. We will not be troubled in the least when the food imports stop, or when the hospitals and drug companies fold. What is more, there is yet a third great service done by eating things raw and in their original form: It is possible to become totally independent of the city. When we become independent the city will be in a pickle, but we shall not suffer.
As long as we have hands and feet and a mouth, it is possible for us, just as it is for wild animals, to nourish ourselves without bowls, chopsticks, pots and pans, propane gas, knives, chopping boards, oil, soy sauce, sugar, or even salt.
Wild animals do not take in an especially large amount of salt, and yet I have never heard of wild animals damaging their health because of this. It is only human beings who take in abnormally large quantities, thereby suffering from arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. It is said that human beings only require 0.1 grams of salt per day. But Japanese on the average take in 20 grams per day, and even those people who are on reduced salt diets ingest 10 grams a day, so this means that we are taking in between 100 and 200 times the needed amount. One-tenth of one gram is an amount naturally found in food, and that should be enough; human beings should not be any different from wild animals. The salt refining factories and the salt retailers can go belly up any time they like. It is idiotic to believe that people must ingest the same proportion of salt as is contained in the blood. One should consider that 0.1 gram of salt has accumulated in the blood.
If you suddenly reduce the amount of salt you ingest you will experience a kind of "cold turkey" in which you feel tired, but this is just because the body is used to a lot of salt. If you put up for just one week, it will pass. One should require no warmup even in order to reduce one's salt intake to 1/100th of the usual.
We have therefore seen the city's last bastion of control — salt — crumble before our very eyes. We do not need the city at all in order to live. It is the city that needs the country in order to continue its existence.
36
The cause of the city's demise will be, for example, a lack of resources, the insufficiency of food, or the contamination of the environment. However, this all depends much upon the changes surrounding the city, so perhaps one should say that the city will perish from "without." Still, the entity responsible for engendering this cause from without is none other than the city (it is the city which squanders resources, brings ruin upon the farming villages, and contaminates the environment), so I think it is correct to say that the city will perish "automatically."
37
Buddhist monk and poet (1118-1190). (Translator's note)
38
It goes without saying that some disciplines, like technical chemistry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and nuclear physics are directly linked to the destruction and contamination of the environment, but those leisurely disciplines that seem to do no harm, like the fine arts, archeology, and anthropology, are indirectly responsible for harming the Earth since their practitioners refuse to sweat or dirty their own hands, and continue to pat their fat bellies, which are full of the labors of the few remaining farmers, thus forcing the farmers into labor saving, high-yield, contaminating, plundering farming methods.
39
The characters for "wild" are here read as those for "natural."The author therefore equates "wild" with "natural."(Translator's note)
40
Poet and writer (1155-1216). Nakashima refers in particular to a work called Hojoki, written when Kamo no Chomei lived in a small hut.
Even if we do absolutely nothing, and let things continue on as they are, the city will automatically perish. Even if I should swing at the ground with a maul and miss, the demise of the city will surely come to pass.
Indulging in Ease, the City Destroys the Future
In a corner of northern Africa, out on the desolate sands, there was a small stand of trees, barely keeping itself alive. In the top of a tree was a boy lopping off branches with a hatchet, and below there were a few goats greedily eating the leaves. This was a scene of Africa's final hour as shown on television. [41]
Around the trees, as far as one could see, there was only barren land; after the goats consumed the leaves on these trees, there would be nothing. The goats were facing starvation, and the boy, who lived on the goats' milk, would be visited by the same fate.
"Does this boy know," said the voice of the television, "that he is cutting his own throat? Even if he does, this is the only way to live until tomorrow."
You, in the cities! Can you view this merely as the misfortune of others? The fate of this boy is the fate of the city.
You too are cutting limbs off trees every day. In order to live through the day (or, more precisely, in order to continue enjoying convenience, extravagance, and ease, to continue the pursuit of profit, to seek glory and praise, and to continue your stupid competition) you keep on lopping off branches. It does not matter to you if this is the march of death; you continue to waste the few remaining resources, to destroy and contaminate our irreplaceable natural environment, to reduce the amount of farmland, which is your lifeline. How much longer do you think you can live while sacrificing your own future?
Petroleum: the City's Support;Petroleum: the City's Demise
Even if the prediction that petroleum will run out in another 30 years is wrong, this does not mean that there is an unlimited amount. It is an undeniable fact that, for every drop of petroleum used, the reserves will be reduced by that same amount.
And it is not just petroleum, for the same rule holds true for iron, copper, aluminum, and uranium, and it is no different for the so-called new materials. As long as there is no proof that these new materials are made from a vacuum, and that their process of manufacture requires no energy, there is no denying that any new material invented is subject to the same fate.
Let us note also that since these buried resources are used in close conjunction with one another, the city will be threatened by a lack of even one of them. For example, should there be a shortage of manganese, steelmaking will suffer. If we run short of copper, there will be no more motors that use copper wire in their coils, and whole industrial sector will be paralyzed. Here they cannot say that "even if we run out of copper, we can use tin or nickel."
Petroleum is the same in that there is no replacement. We hear that nuclear power will act in its place, but then nuclear power cannot be used as the raw material for manufactured articles, and even in the field of energy it is said that, if we do not have an amount of petroleum which corresponds to one-fourth the energy gained from nuclear power, it is impossible to operate the nuclear power plants.
Nature's Retaliation Is Assured
So we have seen that when the petroleum runs out (whether it be 30 or 50 years in the future, it does not matter) the modern city will perish, but there is one other noteworthy matter here, and that is, before the oil wells run dry, the city must perish twice for the sake of petroleum.
One reason is that, because of the poisons released by petroleum, the city will become uninhabitable. We have already seen that, when one traces them back to the source, the physical cause of all forms of pollution is petroleum. No matter to what extent the city was made to flush untreated wastes into the rivers and oceans, no matter how impudent the urbanites are, and no matter how much the people at the Environment Agency shirk their duties, if petroleum suddenly disappeared from before our very eyes, it is sure that 80 percent of our present pollution (including chemicals, food additives, and agricultural chemicals) would disappear along with it. Will the city perish because of petroleum's poisons, or because of its disappearance?
It is almost as if petroleum was discovered for the purpose of eradicating the cities. Verily, the sum total of the petroleum poisons in the whole world is exactly that needed to get rid of the cities. Nature is making an example of the cities for us. No matter what reason there could be, the arrogant and extravagant city cannot be expected to give up petroleum until it has consumed the last drop, so noting what the future will bring, Nature promised the Earth that the cities would perish. The city must pay a price commensurate with the convenience and extravagance (in reality, the destruction and contamination) it has thus far enjoyed, and that price is the demise of the city. This is the great Iron Hammer of Nature (Nature's retaliation).
The Petroleum Grabfest Will End in Total Nuclear War
The second way in which the city will perish for the sake of petroleum is the total nuclear war brought on by the frantic scramble for petroleum. The city will have no choice. The urbanites are steeped in the prosperity of the city — convenience, extravagance, ease, the Pursuit of Profit, production competition, glory, and praise, all gained by means of squandering petroleum — and there is no mistaking that, when they begin to have that terrible feeling that the oil is about to run out, they will go mad and try to rob it from others. [42] Should the city just try to be gentlemanly about the matter, it will be totally paralyzed, so no matter what stands in the way, the city will without reserve begin the fight for petroleum. Nuclear war will begin in this way, and most of the cities in the world — including the urbanized country — will be destroyed. It will be the end of humanity except for those in the back country of New Guinea or the Amazon.
When this time comes it will be too late for warnings, countermeasures, or practice of any kind. We must realize that our time for extinction has come, and calmly reap as we have sown. [43]
The Inevitable Fate of the City:Development = Doom
"Digging one's own grave" — Here is the expression which has described the city since it first appeared on Earth. In Chapter IV, I noted that the city itself is the explosive that came into being in order to get rid of the city, and verily, the city has, by means of choosing the course of growth and development, rushed down the road to oblivion since the time it first appeared. There has never been an instance of the city lessening, even for a day, its efforts to destroy itself, or resting in its labors to dig its own grave. The reason for establishing the city is to achieve ease and gluttony, and the attainment of this objective necessitates plunder, destruction, and contamination; this is none other than the rush down the road to ruin. There is no other possible course for the city to follow. Should one hope for another course for the city to follow, it would have to be the complete negation of the city's reason for being, and the cessation of ease and gluttony (plunder, destruction, and contamination, i.e., the functions of the city). One must always keep in mind that, should one, with one's mind set on ease and gluttony, establish the city and allow it to continue its activities, ruin is its inevitable fate.
Therefore, since ruin is the city's mission, it is only natural that the city's all-pervading image is that of a person digging his own grave. And then, in order that the city can execute its mission with even greater effectiveness, it continues adding on, stacking up, coupling, compounding, and amplifying, in that way helping to hasten its own demise. Recently the New City Image has made its appearance.
The Self-Destructive Apparatus of Civilization Cannot Be Stopped
A robot manufacturing company introduced robots into its own robot factory. This is because it was impossible for the company to compete in the marketplace unless it made an example of its own factory. No longer able to continue operations, it went belly up. In this way the manager of the robot factory was forced to risk his life in the establishment of a roboticized robot factory. Upon completion of the factory, the manager and 600 employees all lost their jobs. It was for that reason (and also to become a model for the industry) that they did it. In order to remain on the cutting edge of technology and stay out in front of the competition it was necessary to build a factory that would allow the presence of not a single human being.
"Right now we are working like bees in order to build an apparatus that will cut our own throats," said one of the employees in a television interview. "This will eventually take place in all factories. It can't be helped — if we don't do it, the company will fold. Lately I've been giving serious thought to becoming a hired hand on a dairy farm in Hokkaido after I lose this job."
But not all 600 could find jobs herding cattle, and not all of them could do the job even if they were asked. An economy based on money generates legions of idle people hungry for money, and they come up with all sorts of schemes to make a living, such as the investment magazines, and the recent Toyota Trading Company scandal. [44]
Nowadays robots can do just about anything, and we rejoice over how convenient and quick everything has become, and over civilization's progress, but we had better look again, because civilization is robbing us of our jobs. Whether in developed or developing countries, civilization is the enemy of human survival.
I have described one of the new conditions under which the city will self-destruct (or become uninhabited). The city, which once achieved prosperity by means of civilization, will soon perish by means of civilization. How could this possibly be stopped?
The Contradictions and Tyranny of the City Render RecyclingImpossible
I have noted many times that by means of destroying the forests and transforming the land into desert the city is not only bringing about crises for the developing countries, but is also threatening its own existence. Knowing just this is enough to tell us that the city has not long to live. It should be evident to anyone that the city is responsible for the fearsomely rapid spread of the deserts in the developing countries, the increase in barren land, the decrease in the amount of oxygen, the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, and, more than anything else, the shortage of pulp.
The future of the city depends in a large measure upon its all-important paper — wrapping paper, cardboard boxes, bathroom tissue, newspapers, magazines, and computer printing paper. So the city is saddled with the contradiction that it cannot stop its profligacy. The regions which produce the wood for this paper are turning into deserts minute by minute.
The other day an employee of a factory that makes chips from imported wood came to see my chickens. "Every day my factory converts an awesome amount of imported wood into chips," he said, "and it is all used to produce the wrapping paper used in department stores. For stupid vanity and convenience we are plunging the developing countries into crisis, and cutting our own throats at the same time. I can no longer bear the futility, or being party to the great crime of doing such work. I want to become a self-sufficient farmer, and so came to see your chickens." * * * I also noted earlier that the city continues its limitless expansion on a global scale, and that, inversely proportional to this, farmland is limitlessly plundered. This too shows us that the city is not long for this world. The contradictions and tyranny of the urbanites, who seek to continue their gluttony even as they steal the farmland that produces their food, are beyond the comprehension of the ordinary person.
A short time ago I happened to visit a public facility in Fukui, and spoke to one of the personnel. "This area used to be prime rice paddies," he explained. "But as you can see, it is now a fine public meeting hall and a big parking lot. In this way we continue to lose farmland. When I think of what will eventually happen, shivers run down my spine."
In the neighborhood of my daughter's farm they are talking about making a golf course. If they go through with the plan, the developers will purchase the fields and wooded areas around my daughter's farm and make it all into a golf course. I asked if anyone was opposing this plan and was told that not one person in the village was against it. If anyone were to oppose the plan they would be ostracized from the village since, once the golf course is completed, not only will the fields and woods be transformed into piles of money, but there will be a rest facility, a restaurant, and jobs. In this way little effort is required of the city in order to steal more farmland and urbanize it. And what is really surprising is that I have not yet heard of any plan to convert the city into farmland.
Biotechnology: Violating the Province of Nature
The city is replete with evidence of self-destruction, and it projects many images of people digging their own graves, so one could not possibly write about all of them. But I would like to add a final word about biotechnology.
The work of evolving and fostering the species is the province of Nature, and has taken billions of years. Whether it be a single grass seed or a single tree leaf, nothing came into being overnight; each thing is the product of the complex and wondrous interaction of species that have repeated adaptation and selection over an incomprehensibly long time. If, in this net of interaction among species, even one of the nodes should exhibit unusual development or disappear, the balance of the ecosystem is disturbed; species that cannot stand the strain will perish, and the ecosystem then reorganizes itself to seek a new point of balance. This is what I mean by natural selection (the dispensation of Nature).
But now we see those cleverly conceited, high-handed, and arrogant human beings invading the province of Nature, and trying their hand at biotechnology; in a short period of time they are attempting to change that which Nature has taken billions of years to make, or to create something new. The species adapt to their environments (air, water, sunlight, the Land, and the net of interactions among species) and survive by maintaining their balance through mutual assistance, but in order to do this it requires the total history of its own evolution since the time it appeared.