New World, New Mind Explores Human Brain

Erlich and Ornstein Suggest Mental Adjustment

Some books serve as part of a vital warning system.

New World, New Mind (Doubleday, 1989) by Paul Ehrlich and Robert Ornstein reads like the cliched canary in a coal mine, even though it is 20 years old.

Human Brain Ignores Long-term Change

The authors say that if you place a frog in a pan of water and put it on the stove it will be boiled alive without a struggle, for it will fail to notice the slowly rising temperature. Humans, likewise, tend to ignore gradual deterioration in the environment until it is too late to react. A peculiar short-sightedness stemming from human biological evolution prevents people from fully appreciating the long-term effects of incremental global issues like pollution and over-population.

Old-world Thinking No Longer Applies

The old-minded ways of thinking were determined by biological and cultural factors that no longer have much relevance to the conditions of modern life. The authors claim that today, people are behaving like children who "refuse to live on our income, the solar energy input that produces and sustains life, and instead we squander our capital, our natural inheritance, the land, water and air."

The unleashed human intellect and ego heedlessly pursues exponential expansion and urbanization, which will eventually kill the planet unless the flames of unreasonable, unconscionable economics are extinguished.

Protest and rhetoric are useless against apathy and ignorance. Equally ineffective is simply dropping out and doing one's own thing; everyone is essentially trapped in the same deep, dark cave that humans have collectively dug themselves into.

But hopefully self-annihilation can and will be avoided as each person sets an example that helps lead others away from glittery fool's gold and toward the subdued, elemental hues of a holistic lifestyle. There is a way out of the deadly labyrinth, just nobody strike a match quite yet!