I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
…When you consider that non-native populations only arrived here in the last 150 years, that’s impressive — to take a species that dates back to before the continents we know today even existed, that survived the glacial periods, volcanoes, all of that, and almost wipe them out in a few generations.
I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness.
(link) [From I think that there is far too much work done in…]
In the course of reading King of Fish and some of the end-of-year round ups, I think this is the kernel of a new belief system, perhaps not so new. I am struck by the themes of specialization and efficiency in the this book, but in many other places as well. Specialization breeds efficiency: after all, if you do the same thing all day, odds are you’ll get better at it. But better almost almost means more, especially in resource extraction, as we see in so many things. But the example of the salmon is interesting and maddening because it has been obvious for 1000 years or more that it is possible to overfish or otherwise wreck the stock of fish. But in a mixture of the Tragedy of the Commons and a lot of sheer stupidity, people did the wrong things anyway.
What more could you want than a healthy, protein rich food source that comes to you, for its own reasons, but on a reliable timetable and in quantities sufficient to feed an enormous amount of people if managed properly? But when people do nothing but fish and take as much as they can, rather than what they need or can use, they throw the system out of balance. So the once-prodigious stocks in northern Europe were wiped out (in all but Iceland and some parts of Scotland) and the Pacific species have been on the verge for most of the last century. When you consider that non-native populations only arrived here in the last 150 years, that’s impressive — to take a species that dates back to before the continents we know today even existed, that survived the glacial periods, volcanoes, all of that, and almost wipe them out in a few generations.
What’s especially appalling is how people react to plenty. Where in a few years they may be hard-pressed to find any fish at all, there was a time when they can take them of the river with pitchforks and use them as manure. They were too cheap to sell, but in a few short years, they were to rare to find. And this happened in Europe, then in the Northeast and Maritimes, and it’s still happening here in the Northwest.
Outstanding.
More meditations on this perhaps.
