If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways Read Online Free PDF Page A

There's an element of truth in that, to be sure. But I think there's something deeper to be found here.
    Elaine [ after a pause ]. I don't know where to look.
    Daniel . Pull back. Try to see what's behind the question. Try to see what's going on in the minds of the people who ask it.
    Elaine [ after a longer pause ]. I don't know if I'm on the track here or not, but... when the surgeon general reports that smokers are more likely to contract lung cancer than nonsmokers, it's understood that you'd better give up smoking.
    Daniel . The description implies a prescription.
    Elaine . Yes, that's it.
    Daniel . If I point out that tribal peoples generally lead easier, less stressful lives, this is just a description, but some people assume it must be a prescription.
    Elaine . That's right.
    Daniel . If I point out that the Agricultural Revolution has brought about a boom in human population growth that has brought us to the verge of catastrophe, this is also just a description, but some people assume it must be a prescription — of some kind. For example, some people think I'm saying we should cut food production and let people starve.
    Elaine . Well, I have to admit I wondered about that myself.
    Daniel . You wondered what my prescription is.
    Elaine . Yes.
    Daniel . This has been a continuing problem for me — maybe you could call it the anthropologist's dilemma. If I describe something, simply doing my job as an anthropologist, it's often assumed that I must also be prescribing something.
    Elaine . Well, people do want prescriptions.
    Daniel . That's certainly true... I've described the problem as a food race, similar to the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In that arms race, every advance made on our side was answered by an advance on their side, which of course had to be answered by yet another advance on our side, provoking another advance on their side — a never-ending escalation. The food race is the same. Every advance on the side of food production is answered by an advance in population growth, which must be answered by an advance in food production, provoking yet another advance in population growth. For this I did have a prescription. The Cold War arms race ended when the Soviet Union simply walked away from it — refused to go on racing with us. The food race could end in the same way, if we simply walked away from it, refused to perpetuate the race between food production and population growth.
    Elaine . What would be the result of that?
    Daniel . If x amount of food feeds six billion of us this year, then x amount of food will feed six billion of us next year. Won't it?
    Elaine . I would think so.
    Daniel . And if x amount of food will feed six billion of us next year, then x amount of food will feed six billion of us the year after that, won't it?
    Elaine . Yes.
    Daniel . Then why increase food production?
    Elaine [ after a bit of thought ]. Ah! To feed the starving millions!
    Daniel . Of course. So last year they increased food production in order to feed the starving millions.
    Elaine . I assume they did.
    Daniel . You can bet on it. So this year the starving millions are being fed, right?
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel . How long the starving millions have been around I don't know, but from my own personal experience, I can tell you that they've been around for seventy years. And we've been increasing food production for all those years to feed them. But they never get fed, do they?
    Elaine . Apparently not.
    Daniel . Why not? If we're constantly increasing food production in order to feed them, why are they still starving?
    Elaine . That I don't know.
    Daniel . I think you do. Or at least I think you know the conventional wisdom about it. That's where the Martian anthropologist has to begin, with the conventional wisdom that everyone accepts without question. The food is there. Everyone agrees that we've got enough food to feed everyone on the planet. But the starving