Epilogue-From a Laboratory Window3


pelling demand for food beginning with the most primitive prebacteria
a billion or more years ago, down through the infinitely slow, evolu-
tionary ages to man of today. This struggle for existence has been so
bred into us through the ages that we seem unable to avoid violent con-
flict even when the food supply is more than ample. Commonly, per-
sons want more and more of whatever it is they are after-food, money,
power, praise, even when the "cup runneth over," an interminable
strug-
gle, frequently ruthless. Because the prospect is so awful and so revolt-
ing to many, we strive to ignore violent predation, the preying of the
larger on the smaller organisms, and also insidious parasitism, the
smaller living at the expense of the larger.
   Small organisms both plant and animal reproduce prodigiously; most
of them go into the maw of the next larger species in the pyramid of
life, leaving only a few to carry on the race. Each must ceaselessly feed,
fight, breed, and die. Consider the billions of microbes in our intestinal
tracts. There is increasing evidence that such parasites are desirable for
the development of a successful mechanism against pathogenic invaders.
"Parasitism may be regarded not as a pathological manifestation but
as a normal condition having its roots in the interdependence of all liv-
ing organisms."3 Conflict is inherent in life. How much of this is an
ap-
propriate struggle for life and for growth and how much sheer selfish
greed are always moot questions. Only after millions of years has the
body developed a fairly satisfactory compromise with parasites and
among opposing physiologic mechanisms.4 Man in society needs to
consult his body and the lowly parasites to learn wisdom, the necessity
of compromise, and the facts of the interdependence of all living crea-
tures, great and small.
   Another distressing view, and one even more difficult to cope with,
 is that man, this worst predator with the gun, carries on the conflict
 ruthlessly with his own species even in the realm of his religions where
 ideals and altruism should rule. The wars of religion have been as fierce
 and as pitiless as the worst of those for land or for gold, even up to
 yesterday with the partition of India. Millions through all ages have
 prayed for peace, yet relentless wars have ravaged them and their lands.
 And here in this country we have not been guiltless. Are not all the
 major religions essentially the same in their underlying philosophies?
 Norman Cousins in his stimulating book Who Speaks for Man5 gives the
 phrasing of the Golden Rule, man's hoped for attitude-towards-man, as
 taught in nine religions of the world. The Bahai Cause, Buddhism,


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