[Ads-l] Quote Origin: The World Has Cancer, and the Cancer Cell Is Man

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

While researching the quotation "Growth for the sake of growth is the
ideology of the cancer cell" I encountered a closely related
collection of sayings based on the same analogy between humanity and
cancer as indicated in the subject line.

Now, there are two QI articles. One saying condemns economic growth:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/11/20/growth-cancer/

The other saying condemns humanity itself:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/11/22/cancer-humanity/

The cancer analogy has a long history. In 1907 Professor of Divinity
William Ralph Inge published a collection of essays titled "Personal
Idealism and Mysticism". One essay discussed selfishness which Inge
criticized as "a disease and a blunder". Inge suggested that the
cancer analogy could be traced to ancient Stoics although I have not
yet found support for this claim:

[Begin excerpt]
The Stoics used to say that the selfish man is a cancer in the
universe. A cancer is caused by unchecked proliferation of cellular
tissue by one organ independently of the rest of the body. The
parallel is therefore scientifically exact.
[End excerpt]

The earliest close match found for the remark in the subject line
appeared in the journal “Science” in 1955 within an article by
physician Alan Gregg titled "A Medical Aspect of the Population
Problem". Gregg's phrasing was tentative. (This citation was also
listed in my previous message):

[ref] 1955 May 13, Science, Volume 121, Number 3150, Section:
Population Problems, A Medical Aspect of the Population Problem by
Alan Gregg (Big Sur, California), Start Page 681, Quote Page 682,
Column 1, American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Washington D.C. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
In short, I suggest, as a way of looking at the population problem,
that there are some interesting analogies between the growth of the
human population of the world and the increase of cells observable in
neoplasms: To say that the world has cancer, and that the cancer cell
is man, has neither experimental proof nor the validation of
predictive accuracy; but I see no reason that instantly forbids such a
speculation.
[End excerpt]

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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