Sara S
06-29-2007, 09:25 AM
In today's encore excerpt, John Steinbeck and his
biologist friend Ed Ricketts muse on the subjects of
systems and anarchy in the shadow of World War
II:
"We thought that perhaps our species thrives best and
most creatively in a state of semi-anarchy, governed
by loose rules and half-practiced mores. To this we
add the premise that over-integration in human
groups might parallel the law in paleontology that
over-armor and over-ornamentation are symptoms of
decay and disappearance. Indeed, we thought,
over-integration might be the symptom of human
decay. We thought: there is no creative unit in the
human save the individual working alone. In pure
creativeness, in art, in music, in mathematics ... the
creative principle is a lonely and individual matter.
Groups can correlate, investigate, and build, but we
could not think of any group that has ever created or
invented anything. Indeed, the first impulse of the
group seems to be to destroy the creation and the
creator. ...
"Consider, we would say, the Third Reich or the
Politburo-controlled Soviet. The sudden removal of
twenty-five key men from either system could cripple it
so thoroughly that it would take a long time to recover,
if it ever could. To preserve itself in safety such a
system must destroy or remove all opposition as a
danger to itself. But opposition is creative and
restriction is non-creative. The force that feeds growth
is therefore cut off, ... thought and art must be forced to
disappear and a weighty traditionalism take its
place. ... A too greatly integrated system or society is in
danger of destruction since the removal of one unit
may cripple the whole.
"Consider the blundering anarchic system of the
United States, the stupidity of some of its lawmakers,
the violent reaction, the slowness of its ability to
change. Twenty-five key men destroyed could make
the Soviet Union stagger, but we could lose our
congress, our president and our general staff and
nothing much would have happened. We would go
right on. In fact we might be better for it. ..."
John Steinbeck, The Log From the Sea of
Cortez, Penguin, 1951, pp. 257-8.
biologist friend Ed Ricketts muse on the subjects of
systems and anarchy in the shadow of World War
II:
"We thought that perhaps our species thrives best and
most creatively in a state of semi-anarchy, governed
by loose rules and half-practiced mores. To this we
add the premise that over-integration in human
groups might parallel the law in paleontology that
over-armor and over-ornamentation are symptoms of
decay and disappearance. Indeed, we thought,
over-integration might be the symptom of human
decay. We thought: there is no creative unit in the
human save the individual working alone. In pure
creativeness, in art, in music, in mathematics ... the
creative principle is a lonely and individual matter.
Groups can correlate, investigate, and build, but we
could not think of any group that has ever created or
invented anything. Indeed, the first impulse of the
group seems to be to destroy the creation and the
creator. ...
"Consider, we would say, the Third Reich or the
Politburo-controlled Soviet. The sudden removal of
twenty-five key men from either system could cripple it
so thoroughly that it would take a long time to recover,
if it ever could. To preserve itself in safety such a
system must destroy or remove all opposition as a
danger to itself. But opposition is creative and
restriction is non-creative. The force that feeds growth
is therefore cut off, ... thought and art must be forced to
disappear and a weighty traditionalism take its
place. ... A too greatly integrated system or society is in
danger of destruction since the removal of one unit
may cripple the whole.
"Consider the blundering anarchic system of the
United States, the stupidity of some of its lawmakers,
the violent reaction, the slowness of its ability to
change. Twenty-five key men destroyed could make
the Soviet Union stagger, but we could lose our
congress, our president and our general staff and
nothing much would have happened. We would go
right on. In fact we might be better for it. ..."
John Steinbeck, The Log From the Sea of
Cortez, Penguin, 1951, pp. 257-8.