One of the phrases that
crop up in documentaries and history programmes is "changed the course of
history". When this is said which
is very often we greet it with a cheer.
No such programme should be without it.
In the Mail today was an
article about The Black Death and how it was spread. Experts now think that it was not just a
matter of rats and fleas but from human to human as a result
of lack of hygiene and airborne as well.
In the 19th Century when
scientists were searching for the causes of diseases and especially epidemics
with high fatality rates there was a fierce debate about how the bugs spread
and what kind of bugs they were.
It became fashionable
among some to deride the idea of airborne transmission for many complaints and
the Victorian desire to prevent outside air to enter in many homes.
It took a long time and
major technological and scientific developments to refine and identity the many
ways that the bugs could get you.
Those of a certain age
will recall the frantic propaganda Ministry of Information films threatening
the nation with doom and disaster unless we followed the Health advice and
behaved in the way we should.
There was a point to it
all and not just economic. Before the
new discoveries of drugs, notably antibiotics etc. a good many people died too
soon and others were damaged for life.
In the meantime we have
staved off, probably only temporarily, some of the potential bugs that have the
potential to drastically reduce population levels.
But how long for?
Nature as I see it is always looking for balance and equilibrium and if humans do not find a way to organise themselves so that they live in harmony with nature then I suspect nature will do the job for them by producing a deadly disease that will drastically reduce the size of the population or even wipe us out. But then nature has other methods under it's sleeve such as asteroids, volcanoes and other naturally occurring disasters It occurs to me that humans may have been one of natures great mistakes because they were given too much intelligence more than they needed for what is a prime and rather basic function survival and procreation. Though this intelligence may in the end be natures balancing trick because misuse or otherwise of that intelligence will lead to two different outcomes the latter equilibrium and humans future assured the former then the demise of humans by man made destructive means.
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