hurled against the fabric of life—a fabric on the one hand delicate and des tructible, on the
othe r miraculous ly tough and res ilient, and capable of s triking back in unexpected ways. T hes e
extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who
have brought to their tas k no ‘high-minde d orientation’, no humility before the vast forces with
which they tampe r. The ‘control of nature’ is a phras e conceived in arrogance, born of the
Neanderthal age of biology and philos ophy, when it was s uppos ed that nature exis ts for the
convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the mos t part date
from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has
armed itself with the mos t mode rn and te rrible weapons , and that in turning them agains t the
ins ects it has als o turned the m agains t the earth.
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