Four Changes

This is the first draft of a work in progress by Gary Snyder. It arose as a by-product of the Wild West debacle, from the warmth of numerous meetings of ecological activists working up to and out of a display at Wild West. It's been arising in Gary Snyder for years. On August 17 he submitted this draft for scrutiny by a group including Cliff and Mary Humphrey, Keith Lampe, Sterling Bunnell, Stephanie Mills, Joan McIntyre, Edward Bear, and others whose names I didn't get. Gary ran the scrutiny session with a light perceptive hand. The results you will see in the final version soon to be printed throughout the underground press.

I. POPULATION

The Condition

Position: Man is but a part of the fabric of life - dependent of course on the whole fabric for his very existence, and also responsible to it. As the most highly developed tool-using animal, he must recognize that the evolutionary destinies (unknown) of other life forms are to be respected, and act as gentle steward of the earth's community of being.

Situation: There are now too many human beings; and the problem is growing rapidly worse. It is potentially disastrous not only for the human race but for most other life forms.

Goal: The goal would be half of the present world population or less.

Action

Social/political: Legalize abortion; encourage vasectomy and sterilization (provided free by clinics), remove income tax deductions for more than two children above a specified income level, and scale it so that lower income families are forced to be careful too. Take a vigorous stand against the Catholic church and any other institutions that exercise an irresponsible political force in regard to this question; work ceaselessly to make all political problems be seen and solved in the light of this prime problem.

The community: Explore other social structures and marriage forms, such as group marriage and polyandrous marriage which provide family life but which produce less children. Share the pleasure of raising children widely, so that all need not directly reproduce to enter into this basic human experience. Let no two persons produce more than two children. Adopt children. Let reverence for life and for the feminine mean also a reverence for other species, most of which are threatened.

Our own heads: "I am a child of all life, and all living beings are my brothers and sisters, my children and grandchildren, & there is a child within me waiting to be brought to birth, the baby of a new and wiser self." Love, love-making, a male and female together, seen as the vehicle of mutual realization, where the creation of new selves and new worlds of beings is as important as making babies.