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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

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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
Reason
Troubles
Real
Elsewhere
Good
Contradiction
Pull
Using
Trouble
Tongs
Fire
Chestnuts
Lying
Fundamentalists

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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
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No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
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Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.
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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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Value is a relative concept: the value of each action is determined by comparing it with other possible actions.
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The population problem has no technical solution it requires a fundamental extension in 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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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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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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Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'
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To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.
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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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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
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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.
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Incommensurables cannot be compared.
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The god who is reputed to have created fleas to keep dogs from moping over their situation must also have created fundamentalists to keep rationalists from getting flabby. Let us be duly thankful for out blessings.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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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.
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A finite world can support only a finite population therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
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