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Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.

Garrett Hardin

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Garrett Hardin
Age: 88 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 21
Died: 2003
Died: September 14
Biologist
Demographer
Ecologist
Statistician
University Teacher
Dallas
Texas
Garrett James Hardin
Garrett J. Hardin
Society
Pursuing
Freedom
Ruin
Rush
Best
Destination
Believe
Believes
Men
Ruins
Toward
Interest
Commons

More quotes by Garrett Hardin

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Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public, the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.
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Religious reasons, which is no reason. I notice Skeptic had a review of Dennett's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Religious reasons amount to what Dennett terms skyhooks. Do you believe in skyhooks? I don't.
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We see only what we have names for.
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In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
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Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.
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The essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things.
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A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed.
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Incommensurables cannot be compared.
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Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
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A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.
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A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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You can never do merely one thing. The law applies to any action that changes something in a complex system. The point is that an action taken to alleviate a problem will trigger several effects, some of which may offset or even negate the one intended.
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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
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Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?
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Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
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But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
Garrett Hardin
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But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.
Garrett Hardin