Counter-Currents published a review of William S. Blau’s recent book, Our Genetic Future: The Unintended Consequences of Overcoming Natural Selection. This thought-provoking and controversial book may explain why lifespans are decreasing in the U.S, cancers are becoming more frequent in younger people, and even the burgeoning “enshitification” of modern life. If you are intelligent and have an open mind, it’s worth checking out the review by Lipton Matthews. (You may be able to figure out a way to read it w/o subscribing.) A sample:
Contemporary developed societies no longer face intense selective pressure from infectious disease. The selective advantage of immune gene variants that defended against lethal infections has vanished while autoimmune risks remain. The incidence of autoinflammatory and autoimmune disorders has increased markedly, affecting seven to nine percent of the population worldwide and ranking among leading causes of death for young and middle-aged women, with rates increasing ten to twenty percent annually over the past thirty years.
Perhaps most alarming is the documented increase in chronic disease burden across developed societies. Nearly half of American adults suffer from at least one chronic condition. Metabolic disorders including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and fatty liver disease have increased dramatically. Early onset cancers affecting people younger than fifty are rising across multiple cancer types.
Blau cites research using the Biological State Index correlating reduced selection pressure with increased disease rates across nations. Countries with least opportunity for natural selection show dramatically higher incidences of cancers, dementia, and type 1 diabetes compared to nations where mortality remains higher. For cancers known to be strongly genetically based, incidence rates in the ten countries with least opportunity for mortality selection exceed rates in the ten countries with greatest opportunity by a factor of 5.7. These associations persist even after controlling for factors like gross domestic product, life expectancy, and lifestyle factors.
Blau’s book forces readers to confront truths that contemporary culture finds deeply unsettling. We prefer narratives of inexorable progress where science and technology ultimately solve whatever problems they create. The notion that our greatest medical triumphs may have initiated genetic degradation that will burden descendants for centuries contradicts every comforting story we tell ourselves about human advancement.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
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