The Tragedy of the Commons - science.sciencemag.org

What Shanl We Mam?

The Tragedy of the Commons Population, as Malthus said, naturally
tends to grow "geometrically," or, as we
The population problem has no technical solution; would now say, exponentially. In a
it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
finite world this means that the per
Garrett Hardin
capita share of the world's goods must
At the end of a thoughtful article on sional judgment. . . ." Vhether they steadily decrease. Is ours a finite world?
the future of nuclear war, Wiesner and were right or not is not the concern of
York (1) concluded that: "Both sides in A fair defense can be put forward for
the arms race are ... confronted by the the present article. Rather, the concern the view that the world is infinite; or
dilemma of steadily increasing military here is with the important concept of a
power and steadily decreasing national class of human problems which can be that we do not know that it is not. But,
security. It is our considered profes-
sional judgment that this dilemma has called "no technical solution problems," in terms of the practical problems that
no technical solution. If the great pow-
ers continue to look for solutions in and, more specifically, with the identifi- we must face in the next few genera-
the area of science and technology only, cation and discussion of one of these.
the result will be to worsen the situa- tions with the foreseeable technology, it
tion." It is easy to show that the class is not is clear that we will greatly increase
human misery if we do not, during the
I would like to focus your attention a null class. Recall the game of tick- immediate future, assume that the world
not on the subject of the article (na-
tional security in a nuclear world) but tack-toe. Consider the problem, "How available to the terrestrial human pop-
on the kind of conclusion they reached, can I win. the game of tick-tack-toe?"
namely that there is no technical solu- It is well known that I cannot, if I as- ulation is finite. "Space" is no escape
tion to the problem. An implicit and
almost universal assumption of discus- sume (in keeping with the conventions (2).
sions published in professional and of game theory) that my opponent un-
semipopular scientific journals is that derstands the game perfectly. Put an- A finite world can support only a
the problem under discussion has a finite population; therefore, population
technical solution. A technical solution other way, there is no "technical solu- growth must eventually equal zero. (The
may be defined as one that requires a case of perpetual wide fluctuations
change only in. the techniques of the tion" to the problem. I can win only
natural sciences, demanding little or by giving a radical meaning to the word above and below zero is a trivial variant
nothing in the way of change in human "win." I can hit my opponent over the
values or ideas of morality. head; or I can drug him; or I can falsify that need not be discussed.) When this
the records. Every way in which I "win"
In our day (though not in earlier involves, in some sense, an abandon- condition is met, what will be the situa-
times) technical solutions are always
welcome. Because of previous failures ment of the game, as we intuitively un- tion of mankind? Specifically, can Ben-
in prophecy, it takes courage to assert derstand it. (I can also, of course, tham's goal of "the greatest good for
that a desired technical solution is not openly abandon the game-refuse to
possible. Wiesner and York exhibited play it. This is what most adults do.) the greatest number" be realized?
this courage; publishing in a science
journal, they insisted that the solution The class of "No technical solution No-for two reasons, each sufficient
to the problem was not to be found in problems" has members. My thesis is
the natural sciences. They cautiously by itself. The first is a theoretical one.
qualified their statement with the that the "population problem," as con- It is not mathematically possible to
phrase, "It is our considered profes- ventionally conceived, is a member of maximize for two (or more) variables at
this class. How it is conventionally con- the same time. This was clearly stated
The author is professor of biology, University ceived needs some comment. It is fair by von Neumann and Morgenstern (3),
of California, Santa Barbara. This article is to say that most people who' anguish but the principle is implicit in the theory
based on a presidential address presented before over the population problem are trying of partial differential equations, dating
the meeting of the Pacific Division of the Ameri- to find a way to avoid the evils of over- back at least to D'Alembert (1717-
can Association for the Advancement of Science population without relinquishing any of 1783).
at Utah State University, Logan, 25 June 1968. the privileges they now enjoy. They
think that farming the seas or develop- The second reason springs directly
13 DECEMBER 1968 ing new strains of wheat will solve the
problem-technologically. I try to show from biological facts. To live, any
here that the solution they seek cannot organism must have a source of energy
be found. The population problem can- (for example, food). This energy is
not be solved in a technical way, any utilized for two puposes: mere main-
more than can the problem of winning
the game of tick-tack-toe. tenance and work. For man, mainte-

nance of life requires about 1600 kilo-
calories a day ("maintenance calories').
Anything that he does over and above
merely staying alive will be defined as
work, and is supported by "work cal-
ories" which he takes in. Work calories
are used not only for what we call work
in common speech; they are also re-
quired for all forms of enjoyment, from

swimming and automobile racing to
playing music and writing poetry. If
our goal is to maximize population it is
obvious what we must do: We must

make the work calories per person ap-
proach as close to zero as possible. No
gourmet meals, no vacations, no sports,

no music, no literature, no art. . . . I
think that everyone will grant, without

1243

argument or proof, that maximizing time,-p - rate of zero. Any people volve unhappiness. For it is only by
that has intuitively identified its opti- them that the futility of escape can be
population does not max2imize goods. mum point will soon reach it, after
Bentham's goal is impossible. which its growth rate becomes and re- made evident in the drama."
mains zero. The tragedy of the commons develops
In reaching this conclusion I have
made the usual assumption that it is Of course, a positive growth rate in this way. Picture a pasture open to
the acquisition of energy that is the might be taken as evidence that a pop- all. It is to be expected that each herds-
problem. The appearance of atomic ulation is below its optimum. However,
energy has led some to question this by any reasonable standards, the most man will try to keep as many cattle as
assumption. However, given an infinite rapidly growing populations on earth possible on the commons. Such an ar-
today are (in general) the most misera-
source of energy, population growth ble. This association (which need not be rangement may work reasonably satis-
still produces an inescapable problem. invariable) casts doubt on the optimistic factorily for centuries because tribal
The problem of the acquisition of en- assumption that the positive growth rate
of a population is evidence that it has wars, poaching, and disease keep the
ergy is replaced by the problem of its yet to reach its optimum. numbers of both man and beast well

dissipation, as J. H. Fremlin has so wit- We can make little progress in work- below the carrying capacity of the land.
tily shown (4). The arithmetic signs in ing toward optimum poulation size until
-t-he analysis are, as it were, reversed; we explicitly exorcize the spirit of Finally, however, comes the day of
but Bentham's goal is still unobtainable. Adam Smith in the field of practical
demography. In economic affairs, The reckoning, that is, the day when the
The optimum population is, then, less Wealth of Nations (1776) popularized long-desired goal of social stability be-
the "invisible hand," the idea that an comes a reality. At this point, the in-
than the maximum. The difficulty of individual who "intends only his own
defining the optimum is enormous; so gain," is, as it were, "led by an invisible herent logic of the commons remorse-
far as I know, no one has seriously hand to promote . .,. the public interest" lessly generates tragedy.
tackled this problem. Reaching an ac- (5). Adam Smith did not assert that
ceptable and stable solution will surely this was invariably true, and perhaps As a rational being, each herdsman
require more than one generation of neither did any of his followers. But he seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly
hard analytical work-and much per- contributed to a dominant tendency of or implicitly, more or less consciously,
suasion. thought that has ever since interfered he asks, "What is the utility to me of
with positive action based on rational adding one more animal to my herd?"
We want the maximum good per analysis, namely, the tendency to as-
person; but what is good? To one per- sume that decisions reached individually This utility has one negative and one
son it is wilderness, to another it is ski will, in fact, be the best decisions for an positive component.
lodges for thousands. To one it is estu- entire society. If this assumption is
aries to nourish ducks for hunters to correct it justifies the continuance of 1) The positive component is a func-
shoot; to another it is factory land. our present policy of laissez-faire in tion of the increment of one animal.
Comparing one good with another is, reproduction. If it is correct we can as- Since the herdsman receives all the
we usually say, impossible because sume that men will control their individ- proceeds from the sale of the additional
goods are incommensurable. Incommen- ual fecundity so as to produce the opti- animal, the positive utility is nearly +1.
surables cannot be compared. mum population. If the assumption is
not correct, we need to reexamine our 2) The negative component is a func-
Theoretically this may be true; but in individual freedoms to see which ones tion of the additional overgrazing
real life incommensurables are commen- are defensible. created by one more animal. Since,
however, the effects of overgrazing are
surable. Only a criterion of judgment Tragedy of Freedom in a Commons shared by all the herdsmen, the negative
utility for any particular decision-
and a system of weighting are needed. The rebuttal to the invisible hand in making herdsman is only a fraction of
In nature the criterion is survival. Is it population control is to be found in a -1.
better for a species to be small and hide- scenario first sketched in a little-known
able, or large and powerful? Natural pamphlet (6) in 1833 by a mathematical Adding together the component par-
selection commensurates the incommen- tial utilities, the rational herdsman
surables. The compromise achieved de- amateur named William Forster Lloyd concludes that the only sensible course
pends on a natural weighting of the (1794-1852). We may well call it "the for him to pursue is to add another
values of the variables. tragedy of the commons," using the animal to his herd. And another; and
word "tragedy" as the philosopher another.... But this is the conclusion
Man must imitate this process. There Whitehead used it (7): "The essence of reached by each and every rational
is no doubt that in fact he already does, dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It herdsman sharing a commons. Therein
but unconsciously. It is when the hidden resides in the solemnity of the remorse- is the tragedy. Each man is locked into
decisions are made explicit that the less working of things." He then' goes on. a system that compels him to increase
arguments begin. The problem for the to say, "This inevitableness of destiny his herd without limit-in a world that
years ahead is to work out an accept- can only be illustrated in terms of hu- is limited. Ruin is the destination to-
able theory of weighting. Synergistic man life by incidents which in fact in- ward which all men rush, each pursuing
effects, nonlinear variation, and difficul- his own best interest in a society that
ties in discounting the future make the believes in the freedom of the com-
intellectual problem difficult, but not mons. Freedom in a commons brings
(in principle) insoluble. ruin to all.

Has any cultural group solved this Some would say that this is a plati-
practical problem at the present time,
tude. Would that it were! In a sense, it
even on an intuitive level? One simple was learned thousands of years ago, but
natural selection favors the forces of
fact proves that none has: there is no psychological denial (8). The individual
prosperous population in the world to-
day that has, and has had for some benefits as an individual from his ability
to deny the truth even though society as
1244
a whole, of which he is a part, suffers.

SCIENCE, VOL. 162

Education can counteract the natural upon standards. It might be by lottery. was a boy, for there were not too many
tendency to do the wrong thing, but the Or it might be on a first-come, first- people. But as population became denser,
inexorable succession of generations served basis, administered to long the natural chemical and biological re-
requires that the basis for this knowl- queues. These, I think, are all the cycling processes became overloaded,
edge be constantly refreshed. reasonable possibilities. They are all calling for a redefinition of property
objectionable. But we must choose-or rights.
A simple incident that occurred a few acquiesce in the destruction of the com-
years ago in Leominster, Massachusetts, mons that we call our National Parks. How To Legislate Temperance?
shows how perishable the knowledge is.
During the Christmas shopping season Pollution Analysis of the pollution problem as
the parking meters downtown were a function of population density un-
In a reverse way, the tragedy of covers a not generally recognized prin-
covered with plastic bags that bore tags the commons reappears in problems of ciple of morality, namely: the morality
reading: "Do not open until after Christ- pollution. Here it is not a question of of an act is a function of the state of
mas. Free parking courtesy of the taking something out of the commons, the system at the time it is performed
mayor and city council." In other words, but of putting something in-sewage, (10). Using the commons as a cesspool
facing the prospect of an increased de- or chemical, radioactive, and heat
mand for already scarce space, the city wastes into water; noxious and danger- does not harm the general public under
fathers reinstituted the system of the ous fumes into the air; and distracting frontier conditions, because there is no
commons. (Cynically, we suspect that and unpleasant advertising signs into public; the same behavior in a metropo-
they gained more votes than they lost the line of sight. The calculations of lis is unbearable. A hundred and fifty
by this retrogressive act.) utility are much the same as before. years ago a plainsman could kill an
The rational man finds that his share of American bison, cut out only the tongue
In an approximate way, the logic of the cost of the wastes he discharges into for his dinner, and discard the rest of
the commons has been understood for the commons is less than the cost of the animal. He was not in any impor-
a long time, perhaps since the dis- purifying his wastes before releasing tant sense being wasteful. Today, with
covery of agriculture or the invention them. Since this is true for everyone, we only a few thousand bison left, we
of private property in real estate. But are locked into a system of "fouling our would be appalled at such behavior.
it is understood mostly only in special own nest," so long as we behave only
cases which are not sufficiently general- as independent, rational, free-enter- In passing, it is worth noting that the
ized. Even at this late date, cattlemen prisers. morality of an act cannot be determined
leasing national land on the western from a photograph. One does not know
ranges demonstrate no more than an The tragedy of the commons as a whether a man killing an elephant or
ambivalent understanding, in constantly food basket is averted by private prop- setting flre to the grassland is harming
pressuring federal authorities to increase erty, or something formally like it. But
the head count to the point where over- the air and waters surrounding us can- others until one knows the total system
grazing produces erosion and weed- not readily be fenced, and so the trag-
dominance. Likewise, the oceans of the edy of the commons as a cesspool must in which his act appears. "One picture
world continue to suffer from the sur- be prevented by different means, by co- is worth a thousand words," said an
vival of the philosophy of the commons. ercive laws or taxing devices that make ancient Chinese; but it may take 10,000
Maritime nations still respond automat- it cheaper for the polluter to treat his words to validate it. It is as tempting to
ically to the shibboleth of the "freedom pollutants than to discharge them un- ecologists as it is to reformers in general
of the seas." Professing to believe in treated. We have not progressed as far to try to persuade others by way of the
the "inexhaustible resources of the with the solution of this problem as we photographic shortcut. But the essense
oceans," they bring species after species have with the first. Indeed, our particu- of an argument cannot be photo-
of fish and whales closer to extinction lar concept of private property, which graphed: it must be presented rationally
deters us from exhausting the positive
(9). resources of the earth, favors pollution. -in words.
The owner of a factory on the bank of
The National Parks present another a stream-whose property extends to That morality is system-sensitive
instance of the working out of the the middle of the stream-often has escaped the attention of most codifiers
tragedy of the commons. At present, difficulty seeing why it is not his natural
they are open to all, without limit. The right to muddy the waters flowing past of ethics in the past. "Thou shalt
parks themselves are limited in extent- his door. The law, always behind the not . . ." is the form of traditional
there is only one Yosemite Valley- times, requires elaborate stitching and ethical directives which make no allow-
whereas population seems to grow with- fitting to adapt it to this newly perceived ance for particular circumstances. The
out limit. The values that visitors seek aspect of the commons. laws of our society follow the pattern of
in the parks are steadily eroded. Plainly, ancient ethics, and therefore are poorly
we must soon cease to treat the parks The pollution problem is a con- suited to governing a complex, crowded,
as commons or they will be of no value sequence of population. It did not much changeable world. Our epicyclic solu-
to anyone. matter how a lonely American frontiers- tion is to augment statutory law with
man disposed of his waste. "Flowing administrative law. Since it is practically
What shall we do? We have several water purifies itself every 10 miles," my impossible to spell out all the conditions
options. We might sell them off as pri- grandfather used to say, and the myth under which it is safe to burn trash in
vate property. We might keep them as was near enough to the truth when he the back yard or to run an automobile
public property, but allocate the right without smog-control, by law we dele-
to enter them. The allocation might be gate the details to bureaus. The result
on the basis of wealth, by the use of an is administrative law, which is rightly
auction system. It might be on the basis feared for an ancient reason-Quis
of merit, as defined by some agreed- custodiet ipsos custodes?-"Who shall

13 DECEMBER 1968 1245

-A

watch the watchers themselves?" John equal right to the commons is to lock cipiens would become extinct and
Adams said that we must have "a gov- the world into a tragic course of action. would be replaced by the variety Homo
ernment of laws and not men." Bureau progenitivus" (16).
administrators, trying to evaluate the Unfortunately this is just the course
morality of acts in the total system, are of action that is being pursued by the The argument assumes that con-
singularly liable to corruption, produc- United Nations. In late 1967, some 30 science or the desire for children (no
ing a government by men, not laws. nations agreed to the following (14): matter which) is hereditary-but heredi-
tary only in the most general formal
Prohibition is easy to legislate The Universal Declaration of Human sense. The result will be the same
(though not necessarily to enforce); but Rights describes the family as the natural whether the attitude is transmitted
how do we legislate temperance? Ex- and fundamental unit of society. It fol- through germ cells, or exosomatically,
perience indicates that it can be ac- lows that any choice and decision with to use A. J. Lotka's term. (If one denies
complished best through the mediation regard to the size of the family must irte- the latter possibility as well as the
of administrative law. We limit possi- vocably rest with the family itself, and former, then what's the point of educa-
bilities unnecessarily if we suppose that cannot be made by anyone else. tion?) The argument has here been
the sentiment of Quis custodiet denies stated in the context of the population
us the use of administrative law. We It is painful to have to deny categor- problem, but it applies equally well to
should rather retain the phrase as a ically the validity of this right; denying any instance in which society appeals
perpetual reminder of fearful dangers it, one feels as uncomfortable as a resi- to an individual exploiting a commons
we cannot avoid. The great challenge dent of Salem, Massachusetts, who to restrain himself for the general
facing us now is to invent the corrective denied the reality of witches in the 17th good-by means of his conscience. To
feedbacks that are needed to keep cus- century. At the present time, in liberal make such an appeal is to set up a
todians honest. We must find ways to quarters, something like a taboo acts to selective system that works toward the
legitimate the needed authority of both inhibit criticism of the United Nations. elimination of conscience from the race.
the custodians and the corrective feed- There is a feeling that the United
backs. Nations is "our last and best hope," Pathogenic Effects of Conscience
that we shouldn't find fault with it; we
Freedom To Breed Is Intolerable shouldn't play into the hands of the The long-term disadvantage of an
archconservatives. However, let us not appeal to conscience should be enough
The tragedy of the commons is in- forget what Robert Louis Stevenson to condemn it; but has serious short-
volved in population problems in an- said: "The truth that is suppressed by term disadvantages as well. If we ask
other way. In a world governed solely friends is the readiest weapon of the a man who is exploiting a commons to
by the principle of "dog eat dog"-if enemy." If we love the truth we must desist "in the name of conscience,"
indeed there ever was such a world- openly deny the validity of the Universal what are we saying to him? What does
how many children a family had would Declaration of Human Rights, even he hear?-not only at the moment but
not be a matter of public concern. though it is promoted by the United also in the wee small hours of the
Parents who bred too exuberantly would Nations. We should also join with night when, half asleep, he remembers
leave fewer descendants, not more, be- Kingsley Davis (15) in attempting to not merely the words we used but also
cause they would be unable to care get Planned Parenthood-World Popula- the nonverbal communication cues we
adequately for their children. David tion to see the error of its ways in em- gave him unawares? Sooner or later,
Lack and others have found that such a bracing the same tragic ideal. consciously or subconsciously, he senses
negative feedback demonstrably con- that he has received two communica-
trols the fecundity of birds (11). But Conscience Is Self-Eliminating tions, and that they are contradictory:
men are not birds, and have not acted (i) (intended communication) "If you
like them for millenniums, at least. It is a mistake to think that we can don't do as we ask, we will openly con-
control the breeding of mankind in the demn you for not acting like a respon-
If each human family were depen- long run by an appeal to conscience. sible citizen"; (ii) (the unintended
dent only on its own resources; if the Charles Galton Darwin made this point communication) "If you do behave as
children of improvident parents starved when he spoke on the centennial of the we ask, we will secretly condemr. you
to death; if, thus, overbreeding brought publication of his grandfather's great for a simpleton who can be shamed
its own "punishment" to the germ line- book. The argument is straightforward into standing aside while the rest of us
then there would be no public interest and Darwinian. exploit the commons."
in controlling the breeding of families.
But our society is deeply committed to People vary. Confronted with appeals Everyman then is caught in what
the welfare state (12), and hence is to limit breeding, some people will un- Bateson has called a "double bind."
confronted with another aspect of the doubtedly respond to the plea more Bateson and his co-workers have made
tragedy of the commons. than others. Those who have more a plausible case for viewing the double
children will produce a larger fraction bind as an important causative factor in
In a welfare state, how shall we deal of the next generation than those with the genesis of schizophrenia (17). The
with the family, the religion, the race, more susceptible consciences. The dif- double bind may not always be so
ference will be accentuated, generation damaging, but it always endangers the
or the class (or indeed any distinguish- by generation. mental health of anyone to whom it is
able and cohesive group) that adopts applied. "A bad conscience," said
overbreeding as a policy to secure its In C. G. Darwin's words: "It may Nietzsche, "is a kind of illness."
own aggrandizement (13)? To couple well be that it would take hundreds of
the concept of freedom to breed with generations for the progenitive instinct To conjure up a conscience in others
the belief that everyone born has an to develop in this way, but if it should
do so, nature would have taken her SCIENCE, VOL. 162
1246 revenge, and the variety Homo contra-

is tempting to anyone who wishes to If the word responsibility is to be coercion is not to say that we are re-
extend his control beyond the legal used at all, I suggest that it be in the
limits. Leaders at the highest level sense Charles Frankel uses it (20). quired to enjoy it, or even to pretend
succumb to this temptation. Has any "Responsibility," says this philosopher, we enjoy it. Who enjoys taxes? We all
President during the past generation "is the product of definite social ar- grumble about them. But we accept
failed to call on labor unions to moder- rangements." Notice that Frankel calls compulsory taxes because we recognize
ate voluntarily their demands for higher for social arrangements-not propa- that voluntary taxes would favor the
wages, or to steel companies to honor ganda. conscienceless. We institute and (grum-
voluntary guidelines on prices? I can blingly) support taxes and other coercive
recall none. The rhetoric used on such Mutual Coercion
occasions is designed to produce feel- devices to escape the horror of the
ings of guilt in noncooperators. Mutually Agreed upon
commons.
For centuries it was assumed without The social arrangements that produce
proof that guilt was a valuable, perhaps responsibility are arrangements that An alternative to the commons need
even an indispensable, ingredient of the
civilized life. Now, in this post-Freudian create coercion, of some sort. Consid- not be perfectly just to be preferable.
world, we doubt it. er bank-robbing. The man who takes
money from a bank acts as if the bank With real estate and other material
Paul Goodman speaks from the were a commons. How do we prevent
modern point of view when he says: such action? Certainly not by trying to goods, the alternative we have chosen
"No good has ever come from feeling control his behavior solely by a verbal is the institution of private property
guilty, neither intelligence, policy, nor appeal to his sense of responsibility. coupled with legal inheritance. Is this
compassion. The guilty do not pay Rather than rely on propaganda we system perfectly just? As a genetically
attention to the object but only to them- follow Frankel's lead and insist that a trained biologist I deny that it is. It
selves, and not even to their own in- bank is not a commons; we seek the seems to me that, if there are to be dif-
terests, which might make sense, but to definite social arrangements that will ferences in individual inheritance, legal
their anxieties" (18). keep it from becoming a commons. possession should be perfectly cor-
That we thereby infringe on the free- related with biological inheritance-that
One does not have to be a profes- dom of would-be robbers we neither those who are biologically more fit to
sional psychiatrist to see the conse- deny nor regret.
quences of anxiety. We in the Western be the custodians of property and power
world are just emerging from a dreadful The morality of bank-robbing is
two-centuries-long Dark Ages of Eros particularly easy to understand because should legally inherit more. But genetic
that was sustained partly by prohibi- we accept complete prohibition of this recombination continually makes a
tion laws, but perhaps more effectively activity. We are willing to say "Thou mockery of the doctrine of "like father,
by the anxiety-generating mechanisms shalt not rob banks," without providing like son" implicit in our laws of legal in-
of education. Alex Comfort has told the for exceptions. But temperance also can heritance. An idiot can inherit millions,
story well in The Anxiety Makers (19); be created by coercion. Taxing is a good
it is not a pretty one. coercive device. To keep downtown and a trust fund can keep his estate
shoppers temperate in their use of
Since proof is difficult, we may even parking space we introduce parking intact. We must admit that our legal
concede that the results of anxiety may meters for short periods, and traffic system of private property plus inheri-
sometimes, from certain points of view, fines for longer ones. We need not tance is unjust-but we put up with it
be desirable. The larger question we actually forbid a citizen to park as long because we are not convinced, at the
should ask is whether, as a matter of as he wants to; we need merely make it
policy, we should ever encourage the increasingly expensive for him to do so. moment, that anyone has invented a
use of a technique the tendency (if not Not prohibition, but carefully biased better system. The alternative of the
the intention) of which is psycholog- options are what we offer him. A Madi-
ically pathogenic. We hear much talk son Avenue man might call this per- commons is too horrifying to contem-
these days of responsible parenthood; suasion; I prefer the greater candor of plate. Injustice is preferable to total
the coupled words are incorporated the word coercion.
into the titles of some organizations de- ruin.
voted to birth control. Some people Coercion is a dirty word to most
have proposed massive propaganda liberals now, but it need not forever be It is one of the peculiarities of the
campaigns to instill responsibility into so. As with the four-letter words, its warfare between reform and the status
the nation's (or the world's) breeders. dirtiness can be cleansed away by ex-
But what is the meaning of the word posure to the light, by saying it over and quo that it is thoughtlessly governed
responsibility in this context? Is it not over without apology or embarrassment. by a double standard. Whenever a re-
merely a synonym for the word con- To many, the word coercion implies
science? When we use the word re- arbitrary decisions of distant and irre- form measure is proposed it is often
sponsibility in the absence of substantial sponsible bureaucrats; but this is not a
sanctions are we not trying to browbeat necessary part of its meaning. The only defeated when its opponents trium-
a free man in a commons into acting kind of coercion I recommend is mutual
against his own interest? Responsibility coercion, mutually agreed upon by the phantly discover a flaw in it. As Kings-
is a verbal counterfeit for a substantial majority of the people affected. ley Davis has pointed out (21), worship-
quid pro quo. It is an attempt to get pers of the status quo sometimes imply
something for nothing. To say that we mutually agree to that no reform is possible without unan-
imous agreement, an implication con-
13 DECEMBER 1968
trary to historical fact. As nearly as I
can make out, automatic rejection of

proposed reforms is based on one of
two unconscious assumptions: (i) that
the status quo is perfect; or (ii) that the
choice we face is between reform and
no action; if the proposed reform is
imperfect, we presumably should take
no action at all, while we wait for a
perfect proposal.

But we can never do nothing. That
which we have done for thousands of
years is also action. It also produces

evils. Once we are aware that the

1247

status quo is action, we can then com- government is paying out billions of sciences selects for the disappearance
pare its discoverable advantages and dollars to create supersonic transport of all conscience in the long run, and
disadvantages with the predicted ad-
vantages and disadvantages of the pro- which will disturb 50,000 people for anin,crease in anxiety in the short.
posed reform, discounting as best we
can for our lack of experience. On the every one person who is whisked from The only way we can preserve and
basis of such a comparison, we can coast to coast 3 hours faster. Adver- nurture other and more precious free-
make a rational decision which will not doms is by relinquishing the freedom
involve the unworkable assumption that tisers muddy the airwaves of radio and to breed, and that very soon. "Freedom
only perfect systems are tolerable. television and pollute the view of is the recognition of necessity"-and it
travelers. We are a long way from out- is the role of education to reveal to all
Recognition of Necessity the necessity of abandoning the free-
lawing the commons in matters of
Perhaps the simplest summary of this pleasure. Is this because our Puritan dom to breed. Only so, can we put an
analysis of man's population problems end to this aspect of the tragedy of the
is this: the commons, if justifiable at inheritance makes us view pleasure as
all, is justifiable only under conditions something of a sin, and pain (that is, commons.
of low-population density. As the hu- the pollution of advertising) as the sign
man population has increased, the References
commons has had to be abandoned in of virtue?
one aspect after another. Every new enclosure of the com- 1. J. B. Wiesner and H. F. York, Sci. Amer.
211 (No. 4), 27 (1964).
First we abandoned the commons in mons involves the infringement of
food gathering, enclosing farm land somebody's personal liberty. Infringe- 2. G. Hardin, J. Hered. 50, 68 (1959); S. von
and restricting pastures and hunting Hoernor, Science 137, 18 (1962).
and fishing areas. These restrictions ments made in the distant past are ac-
are still not complete throughout the cepted because no contemporary com- 3. J. von Neumann and 0. Morgenstern, Theory
world. plains of a loss. It is the newly pro- of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton
Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J., 1947), p. 11.
Somewhat later we saw that the com- posed infringements that we vigorously
mons as a place for waste disposal oppose; cries of "rights" and "freedom" 4. J. H. Fremlin, New Sci., No. 415 (1964), p. 285.
would also have to be abandoned. Re- fill the air. But what does "freedom" 5. A. Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Modem
strictions on the disposal of domestic mean? When men mutually agreed to
sewage are widely accepted in the pass laws against robbing, mankind be- Library, New York, 1937), p. 423.
Western world; we are still struggling came more free, not less so. Individuals 6. W. F. Lloyd, Two Lectures on the Checks to
to close the commons to pollution by
automobiles, factories, insecticide locked into the logic of the commons Population (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, Eng-
sprayers, fertilizing operations, and are free only to bring on universal ruin;
atomic energy installations. once they see the necessity of mutual land, 1833), reprinted (in part> in Population,
coercion, they become free to pursue
In a still more embryonic state is our other goals. I believe it was Hegel who Evolution, and Birth Control, G. Hardin,
recognition of the evils of the commons said, "Freedom is the recognition of Ed. (Freeman, San Francisco, 1964), p. 37.
in matters of pleasure. There is almost necessity." 7. A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern
no restriction on the propagation of World (Mentor, New York, 1948), p. 17.
sound waves in the public medium. The The most important aspect of neces- 8. G. Hardin, Ed. Population, Evolution, and
shopping public is assaulted with mind- sity that we must now recognize, is the Birth Control (Freeman, San Francisco, 1964),
less music, without its consent. Our necessity of abandoning the commons p. 56.
in breeding. No technical solution can 9. S. McVay, Sci. Amer. 216 (No. 8>, 13 (1966).
rescue us from the misery of overpopu- 10. J. Fletcher, Situation Ethics (Westminster,
lation. Freedom to breed will bring Philadelphia, 1966).
ruin to all. At the moment, to avoid 11. D. Lack, The Natural Regulation of Animal
hard decisions many of us are tempted
to propagandize for conscience and Nuimbers (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1954).
responsible parenthood. The tempta-
tion must be resisted, because an ap- 12. H. Girvetz, From Wealth to Welfare (Stan-
peal to independently acting con- ford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif., 1950).

13. G. Hardin, Perspec. Biol. Med. 6, 366 (1963).
14. U. Thant, Int. Planned Parenthood News, No.

168 (February 1968>, p. 3.

15. K. Davis, Science 158, 730 (1967).
16. S. Tax, Ed., Evolution after Darwin (Univ.

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960), vol. 2, p.
469.
17. G. Bateson, D. D. Jackson, J. Haley, J. Weak-

land, Behav. Scd. 1, 251 (1956).
18. P. Goodman, New York Rev. Books 10(8),

22 (23 May 1968).
19. A. Comfort, The Anxiety Makers (Nelson,

London, 1967).
20. C. Frankel, The Case for Modern Man (Har-

per, New York, 1955), p. 203.
21. J. D. Roslansky, Genetics and the Future of

Man (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York,
1966), p. 177.

1248 SCIENCE, VOL. 162