Quote Origin: The World Has Cancer, and the Cancer Cell Is Man

Alan Gregg? William Ralph Inge? Paul R. Ehrlich? Marston Bates? Edward Abbey? Ronald Dellums?

Picture of cancer cells from the U.S. National Cancer Institute

Question for Quote Investigator: The size of the human population and the power of human technology have both grown dramatically during the past century. Unfortunately, the biosphere has been damaged by human actions. Someone formulated the following provocative analogy:

The world has cancer, and the cancer cell is man.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match found by QI 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. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

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.

Gregg pointed out that the human population had increased dramatically from 500 million people in A.D. 1500 to 2 billion people in 1955.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

The analogy between human behavior and cancer 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 QI has not yet found support for this claim:2

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.

In 1927 the passage above appeared in the collection “Wit and Wisdom of Dean Inge” edited by Sir James Marchant.3

In 1955 Alan Gregg published a piece in “Science” which presented the analogy as mentioned previously.

In 1962 zoologist and educator Marston Bates published a piece titled “Biology for the Future Citizen and the Future Biologist” which warned that the human species was acting like a wild malignant growth:4

But the world contains lots of things besides people, and with our exploding population, our increasing industrialisation and urbanisation, it seems to me more and more important that we try to understand ecological systems. The human species is behaving frighteningly like a sort of disease of the biosphere — a wild, malignant growth — and if we manage to destroy the system, we shall also very likely destroy ourselves.

Also, in 1962 Marston Bates published a piece in “The Nation” which suggested that humankind was a “disease of the biosphere”:5

We of Western civilization are apt to consider ourselves the crowning glory of evolutionary development — the end toward which life has been struggling through these vast stretches of time. But from the point of view of the biosphere, of the complex web of living things formed through these past eons, man often looks more like an evolutionary mistake than a crowning glory. “Civilized” man, from this viewpoint, is a disease of the biosphere, destroying the natural system and in great danger of destroying himself as well.

In 1964 Marston Bates was interviewed for the book “Talks with Social Scientists”. Bates ascribed the cancer analogy to Alan Gregg:6

If you look at it from the point of the biosphere you can consider us, the human species, as a sort of disease of the biosphere. Here we are multiplying at this tremendous rate—Alan Gregg compared us to cancer cells. The cancer cells are multiplying much faster than any of the other cells and eventually take over the whole system. If you ask any cancer cell, I think he would tell you, “We are doing fine. There are a lot more of us than there are liver cells, kidney cells, or whatever. Obviously we are doing swell!”

In 1968 biologist Paul R. Ehrlich published “The Population Bomb” which contained an instance of the analogy:7

I wish I could offer you some sugarcoated solutions, but I’m afraid the time for them is long gone. A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. Treating only the symptoms of cancer may make the victim more comfortable at first, but eventually he dies—often horribly.

In 1969 “LOOK” magazine published a remark from essayist and environmental advocate Edward Abbey which used the analogy:8

The real estate brokers, the engineers itching to build paved roads, have their hearts set on transforming the desert into a replica of greater Los Angeles. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

A separate Quote Investigator article about the above quotation is available here.

In 1971 U.S. Congressman Ronald Dellums used the analogy in his remarks published in the “Congressional Record”:9

Industrial man is a cancer upon the earth, sucking out its energy resources to support growth that is wildly out of control. This analogy has more than just shock value. In energy terms it has a shattering literal validity.

In 1990 Dave Foreman used the analogy during a discussion forum published in “Harper’s Magazine”. Foreman had worked for the Wilderness Society and cofounded the environmental group Earth First!:10

We are foolish to believe that all our problems are solvable, especially by technology or sociology. The technological fix often creates twice as many problems as it solves. We need fewer solutions and more humility. Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining ourselves as the central nervous system or the brain of nature. We’re not the brain, we are a cancer on nature.

In conclusion, Alan Gregg deserves credit for the remark comparing humanity and cancer which he wrote in the journal “Science” in 1955. A precursor was written by William Ralph Inge in 1907, but he was referring to selfish individuals and not humankind. The analogy has been used by many people during subsequent decades.

Image Notes: Picture of human colorectal cancer cells. Cell nuclei are stained blue. Picture from the U.S. National Cancer Institute via Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.

  1. 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) ↩︎
  2. 1907, Personal Idealism and Mysticism by William Ralph Inge, Chapter 4: The Problem of Personality, Quote Page 111, Longmans, Green, and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  3. 1927, Wit and Wisdom of Dean Inge by William Ralph Inge, Selected and Edited by Sir James Marchant, Part 6: Reflections, Section: On the World and Ourselves, Quote Page 125, Longmans, Green and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  4. 1962, New Thinking in School Biology: Report on the OECD Seminar on the Reform of Biology Teaching, Meeting Location: La Tour de Peilz (Near Vevey, Switzerland), Meeting Dates: September 4-14th, 1962, Article: Biology for the Future Citizen and the Future Biologist by M. Bates (Marston Bates), Start Page 41, Quote Page 44 and 45, The Directorate of Scientific Affairs of The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  5. 1962 October 6, The Nation, Section: Books and the Arts, Man and Other Pests by Marston Bates, (Book review of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”), Start Page 202, Quote Page 202, The Nation Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  6. 1968 Copyright, Talks with Social Scientists, Edited by Charles F. Madden, Chapter: Marston Bates On the Population Explosion, Date: March 5, 1964, Start Page 67, Quote Page 77, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  7. 1968 Copyright (1969 Reprint), The Population Bomb by Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, Chapter 4: What Needs To Be Done, Section: Realism and International Aid, Quote Page 166, Ballantine Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  8. 1969 November 4, LOOK, Land Lovers, Produced by Daniel Chapman, (Remarks by Edward Abbey), Start Page 54, Quote Page 58 and 59, Cowles Communications, Des Moines, Iowa. (Verified with scans; Internet Archive) ↩︎
  9. 1971, United States of America Congressional Record, Volume 117, Part 23, 92nd Congress, First Session, House of Representatives, Section: Extensions of Remarks, Person: Ronald V. Dellums of California, Date: May 28, 1971 (Added August 6, 1971), Quote Page 30624, Column 3, United States Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  10. 1990 April, Harper’s Magazine, Volume 280, Number 1679, Forum: Only Man’s Presence Can Save Nature, Participants: Michael Pollan, Daniel B. Botkin, Dave Foreman, James Lovelock, Frederick Turner, Robert D. Yaro, Start Page 37, Quote Page 48, Column 2, Harper’s Magazine Foundation, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎