A virus will not mutate, unless you allow it to replicate. This principle of virology has been repeatedly iterated by Anthony Fauci in his promotion of the coronavirus vaccine. The same may be said about humans. If they don’t replicate, they're unlikely to produce angry mutants which are resistant to the vaccine of Enlightenment values. Hobbes’ Leviathan is, in fact, like being Moderna(ized) to the extent that it proposes an analysis of human behavior that's out to protect against the virus of self-interest. From a Malthusian point of view replication produces scarcity, but not only of goods like food but clearsightedness and concern for others. The anarchic world of Mad Max is the equivalent of Delta, a viral strain that's exponentially more contagious, deadly and immune to treatment. The rate of population growth in the United States is actually falling, but the fact is there are more and more people being produced who live on subsistence diets, with minimal educational resources and opportunities while a tiny fraction of the population hoards all the wealth. Under these conditions you're going to produce a new even more dangerous cocktail that's likely to destroy that increasingly rarefied commodity known as humanity.
"What is the Antidote to or Antonym for Schadenfreude" by Francis Levy, HuffPost
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