its improvement, is the fundamental purpose of natural selection, if it can be
said to have a purpose, just as it is the basic premise of this study.
But as the polemologist Gaston Bouthoul has pointed out, other institutions that
were developed to serve this ecological function have proved even less
satisfactory. (They include such established forms as these: infanticide,
practiced chiefly in ancient and primitive societies; sexual mutilation;
monasticism; forced emigration; extensive capital punishment, as in old China
and eighteenth-century England; and other similar, usually localized, practices.)
Man's ability to increase his productivity of the essentials of physical life
suggests that the need for protection against cyclical famine may be nearly
obsolete. It has thus tended to reduce the apparent importance of the basic
ecological function of war, which is generally disregarded by peace theorists.
Two aspects of its remain especially relevant, however. The first is obvious:
current rates of population growth, compounded by environmental threat to
chemical and other contaminants, may well bring about a new crisis of
insufficiency. If so, it is likely to be one of unprecedented global magnitude, not
merely regional or temporary. Conventional methods of warfare would almost
surely prove inadequate, in this event, to reduce the consuming population to a
level consistent with survival of the species.
The second relevant factor is the efficiency of modern methods of mass
destruction. Even if their use is not required to meet a world population crisis,
they offer, perhaps paradoxically, the first opportunity in the history of man to
halt the regressive genetic effects of natural selection by war. Nuclear weapons
are indiscriminate. Their application would bring to an end the disproportionate
destruction of the physically stronger members of the species (the "warriors") in
periods of war. Whether this prospect of genetic gain would offset the
unfavorable mutations anticipated from postnuclear radioactivity we have not
yet determined. What gives the question a bearing on our study is the possibility
that the determination may yet have to be made.
Another secondary ecological trend bearing on projected population growth is
the regressive effect of certain medical advances. Pestilence, for example, is no
longer an important factor in population control. The problem of increased life
expectancy has been aggravated. These advances also pose a potentially more
sinister problem, in that undesirable genetic traits that were formerly self-
liquidating are now medically maintained. Many diseases that were once fatal at
preprocreational ages are now cured; the effect of this development is to
perpetuate undesirable susceptibilities and mutations. It seems clear that a new
quasi-eugenic function of war is now in process of formation that will have to
said to have a purpose, just as it is the basic premise of this study.
But as the polemologist Gaston Bouthoul has pointed out, other institutions that
were developed to serve this ecological function have proved even less
satisfactory. (They include such established forms as these: infanticide,
practiced chiefly in ancient and primitive societies; sexual mutilation;
monasticism; forced emigration; extensive capital punishment, as in old China
and eighteenth-century England; and other similar, usually localized, practices.)
Man's ability to increase his productivity of the essentials of physical life
suggests that the need for protection against cyclical famine may be nearly
obsolete. It has thus tended to reduce the apparent importance of the basic
ecological function of war, which is generally disregarded by peace theorists.
Two aspects of its remain especially relevant, however. The first is obvious:
current rates of population growth, compounded by environmental threat to
chemical and other contaminants, may well bring about a new crisis of
insufficiency. If so, it is likely to be one of unprecedented global magnitude, not
merely regional or temporary. Conventional methods of warfare would almost
surely prove inadequate, in this event, to reduce the consuming population to a
level consistent with survival of the species.
The second relevant factor is the efficiency of modern methods of mass
destruction. Even if their use is not required to meet a world population crisis,
they offer, perhaps paradoxically, the first opportunity in the history of man to
halt the regressive genetic effects of natural selection by war. Nuclear weapons
are indiscriminate. Their application would bring to an end the disproportionate
destruction of the physically stronger members of the species (the "warriors") in
periods of war. Whether this prospect of genetic gain would offset the
unfavorable mutations anticipated from postnuclear radioactivity we have not
yet determined. What gives the question a bearing on our study is the possibility
that the determination may yet have to be made.
Another secondary ecological trend bearing on projected population growth is
the regressive effect of certain medical advances. Pestilence, for example, is no
longer an important factor in population control. The problem of increased life
expectancy has been aggravated. These advances also pose a potentially more
sinister problem, in that undesirable genetic traits that were formerly self-
liquidating are now medically maintained. Many diseases that were once fatal at
preprocreational ages are now cured; the effect of this development is to
perpetuate undesirable susceptibilities and mutations. It seems clear that a new
quasi-eugenic function of war is now in process of formation that will have to
