A complex is most simply defined as the conscious personality. By that it is
meant, that which you identify as "me". When a child is born, it has no
conscious personality. It none the less exists and is completely capable of
life. So the conscious personality is an unnecessary acquisition of the mind.
This personality is very highly developed in man and exists only in a much more
limited way in animals. Plants, presumably, have none at all.
It is necessary here to be very clear about the states in which our minds
reside from time to time. There is the comatose state, when it appears to be
non functional; the sleeping state, when we are unconscious but the mind is
active and produces dreams; the wakened state, when the mind is not producing
memories and therefore must be considered to be unconscious; and the memory
producing state which we call consciousness.
In the conscious state, the mind is in the process of creating the conscious
complex or personality. Every object or event encountered while we are in the
conscious state is added to the conscious complex and associated with like
objects. When we consciously consider something, we energize it and it becomes
a member of all things that we have treated in this way. It will remain in
this state always, that is to say, part of the conscious complex, though the
energy slowly drains away and we lose conscious contact with it. We can
relocate it though because we have associated it with other like contents so
that, when we encounter them we see the link to it. For example, when we think
of Uncle Fred we recall that he has a grandchild, Susan, whom we had forgotten
about.
To picture the conscious complex, I recommend the galaxy. Imagine that all of
the galaxies are representations of the minds of humans. For any individual,
his awareness encompasses only the galaxy that is him. It is a loose
collection of stars, that is energized entities, in the general shape of a
disk. It rotates continuously, which we could analogize to the constant change
of orientation that the conscious complex undergoes as life progresses.
The conscious complex was named by Sigmund Freud, ego.
The conscious complex is created by the human mind because it has a source of
energy of sufficient strength to energize events to a high enough level to
acquire this attribute. That is to say that consciousness is an attribute as
is the yellow color of gold. We create the conscious complex beginning at a
very early age, perhaps two or three. Presumably as soon as our brains become
strong enough to generate the energy levels required. This action is performed
indiscriminately by the child and the conscious entities at first are just
scattered lights here and there. But, as time goes on association begins to
occur as the child begins to notice similarities and at puberty for most, the
whole entity integrates into a more or less continuous object. Light is a good
symbol for consciousness. When an object rises to the level of consciousness,
it can be "seen". Jesus said, "I am the light of the world", by which He meant
that to become conscious of Him would provide understanding of life.
At puberty the personality reaches a new state of being. Early on the child
recognizes his memories as unique and his own and associates them with his
personal features like his body. But at puberty, the complex has become large
enough to exhibit a more or less continuous will. That is it rises above the
state of indiscriminate adding to the conscious complex and instead begins to
decide what it wishes to add and therefore can be thought of as participating
in the creation of its own personality. It acquires the feeling of ownership
and proprietorship. It does not like to be reviled and it does like to be
admired.
Here arises an unexpected attribute. A complex achieves, from whence we know
not, a self identity, which is common to any complex. In short, it is alive,
just as the personality is alive. It lives concurrently with, and
independently of, us. It can develop animosity towards the conscious complex
and persecute it. It can produce "voices" which can communicate destructive
ideas to the ego. That is to say that if one develops several complexes, each
of them will achieve a unique self identify. And, each of them is capable of
controlling the body. In the above analogy, the galaxy is the conscious
complex or ego. Sub complexes should be visualized as islands of stars
disconnected from the galaxy but traveling through space in the same direction
with equal velocity.
This is a most dangerous moment in the life of the mind. It wishes to be the
proprietor of its own establishment but lacks the judgment of experience to
apply to its choices. With suitable guidance from more experienced individuals
this danger can be easily managed, but without such guidance, all of the usual
mistakes, such as those described in Pinnoccio will be encountered and may
result in the death of the individual. The will to independence varies quite a
lot from individual to individual, in some cases for genetic reasons, in others
from negative experiences of youth that have produced distrust of elders. Self
will is dangerous because it can lead the individual to destructive practices,
but it is also essential to creativity, which must, by definition occur in
uncharted territory.
The question of sub complexes is really the subject at issue here. The
preceding discussion is provided to make the reader aware of the nature of a
complex. Because of the creative impulse, which we have elsewhere defined as
an essential feature of existence, there is an opportunity in the development
of consciousness to manage its growth and thereby create a unique being. This
idea becomes a desire in humans early on, to participate if not wholly control
the development of the ego, and the first idea about how to accomplish it is
rejection of some contents.
This occurs when the parent or other person on whom the child is dependent
expresses displeasure at the arrival of some trait. When that happens, the
child is motivated to ignore that aspect of his being which allows it to fall
back into unconsciousness. But it isn't the same as if it never was conscious.
It has been energized, precisely because the parent has made an issue of it,
and by rejection the human fails to connect it by association with similar
objects and even forgets about its encounter at all. The object thereby
becomes free floating. In the above mentioned analogy of the galaxy it is a
star that is separated from the main body of the galaxy and exists
independently.
This brings us to the world view of individuals. In the final analysis the
object of life is survival. It is impossible for humans to comprehend that
which contains them so that we must assume that life is valuable and that we
should struggle for survival. It is a virtual fact.
In order to accomplish this act, it will be necessary to develop a positive
attitude towards the earth and life. Should we fail in this task, largely the
responsibility of the parents, suicide, of one form or another, must be the
expected result.
This attitude towards life, proceeds from the opinions acquired by the
individual from his parents and associates as he proceeds through life.
Opinions are arbitrary manifestations of creativity. The actual objects on
which we base our opinions are neither positive nor negative in themselves.
Our opinion emanates from our conclusions about whether the object in question
enhances our prospects for survival or degrades them. This opinion will change
as time goes by because it depends on what else we have included in our
personality. For example, when we adopt Christianity as life enhancing, from
that moment on, we evaluate all encounters in life in terms of how well the
encounter conforms to the world view of Christianity and we develop opinions
about it on that basis.
Creativity in the development of the human personality then, is a dangerous
task. Should we develop a negative attitude towards life, death and failure to
survive awaits us. And, all forms of creativity performed by humans are part
of the grand scheme of development of the human personality.
So, we can say that, we will have all gradations of attitudes towards new
encounters in life, from absolute rejection as dangerous to the continuation of
life and without any redeeming features to unqualified acceptance of the
acquisition as a great achievement because of its perceived attributes in terms
of strengthening the individual's chances for survival.
The problem is with negative evaluations. When an object is viewed as negative
we naturally don't want to include it. So, a question arises regarding how to
get rid of it. This is a typical garbage problem, not much different from the
problem of dealing with physical garbage generated in our homes. No matter
what you do with it, it still exists in some sense and continues to influence
life. As garbage dumps build up, they exert more and more of an undesirable
influence on life until they have to be dealt with in some more environmentally
benign way. Thus it is in the development of the personality too.
A few examples here will help. The first literary example of the problem of
complexes is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this story a humane and positive
member of the community, Dr. Jekyll, encounters a drug the effect of which is
to turn him into an uncivilized monster or animal. This other personality is
called Mr. Hyde. It exerts an attraction for Dr. Jekyll that causes him to
periodically consume the drug that gives control of his body over to this
alternate personality.
In this case, we can conclude that the author is adding drama by imagining an
elixir that produces this change. That elixir is no more mysterious than
alcohol which will frequently release an alternate personality because of the
apparently reduced significance of the reasons for repression when under the
influence of this drug.
In Dr. Jekyll's case, he has been guilty of repressing large amounts of his
experiences as inappropriate to his image of an ideal self. So much, in fact
that it has coalesced into an alternate personality which takes over control of
his body when he weakens his normal personality with some such drug as
alcohol.
The second notable example was made into a movie about 40 years ago, by the
name of The Three Faces of Eve. This is the story of a woman with three
distinct personalities or egos. From this, we learn that repression isn't
always a simple matter of creating a psychic garbage dump that eventually gets
so big and strong that it can take over the personality, we can apparently
create as many disassociated dumps as we like.
Finally, Jeffery Daumer is a good recent example of a Jekyll/Hyde complex.
We should now think through a fictional creation of such a complex, or better
analyze the probable experiences of Eve in the above example.
In Eve's case, we can be sure that one or both parents were very critical of
her as she grew up. Probably these criticisms were first of all regarding her
sexuality and secondarily of her aggression. So, the first time she expressed
something sexual to this parent she was punished in some extreme way, perhaps
by a threat to deprive her of her relationship to her parent, thereby provoking
in Eve the fear of isolation and death. The result would be that she would
deny to herself that she had any sexual feelings at all and as these sexual
feelings increased in number they would take with them into unconsciousness all
associations too.
The same thing happens with feelings of aggression, but these experiences are
much different than sexual urges and so occupy a completely different location.
Over the years these complexes steadily build in strength at the cost of the
main complex, until they can contend for control of the body. When they gain
control, they express themselves according to the contents that make them up,
so that the sexual Eve dresses suggestively and spends all of her time flirting
and the aggressive Eve dresses manishly and spends her time trying to control
every circumstance.
So, the complex is created when we cast out some feature of life that we
encounter in ourselves and deem to be inappropriate to the ideal personality we
hope for. Casting out is a figure of speech, what we actually do is fail to
think about the new acquisition until its links to the main complex, never very
strong, disappear from lack of use. This is like the fading of a memory.
As time goes by, we cast out more and more features of life, and perhaps even
those things that are associated with the undesirable features even though they
aren't in themselves undesirable.
This complex is just what it is. If we reject sexual desire, a most common
rejection, when this complex gains control it is only sexual and we will be
perceived to be single-mindedly concerned about sex when under its control.
As time goes by and more contents are thrown after the first, we are
strengthening this complex and therefore increasing the amount of time that it
is likely to have control of us, until, eventually, it could become so large
and powerful that it could gain permanent control of the personality. In the
case of sexual repression, it would look to an observer like, all of a sudden,
a person that had seemed to lack any sexual nature at all, transformed into a
person that has no other interest but sex. This would be the likely genesis of
the nymphomaniac. This is much more likely in a woman since overt female
sexuality has been until recently regarded negatively by society.
So, how does life feel to the complex? The same as it does to us, except that
the complex finds itself strangely without power to make its choices felt. We
experience this state whenever we find that the complex has taken over control,
when we seem to inhabit the complex instead of our normal personality.
Now the time arrives to make an argument to do something about complexes. This
is not an issue for the person whose complex has assumed a problematic state.
He will be highly motivated to do something about it, since he cannot avoid its
manifestations and they cause him some pain and suffering.
But for the main run of humanity, the complex is largely invisible and only
periodically problematic. It is therefore, referred to by associates as
idiosyncratic, thereby relieving us of the necessity of doing anything. That
is because of the perceived inability, historically, for many to understand or
deal with complexes, formerly called haunts and evil spirits.
I would like to suggest that there is a hierarchy of meanings and purposes to
life. In the beginning, individual survival is the nature of being, but for
many, that is accomplished early on and some other purpose must then replace
that which has been eliminated by success. For most, this will mean
identifying larger and larger entities with need for our help. So that, after
assuring personal survival one is concerned with family survival and after that
community survival and then national survival, and so on.
Another preoccupation of those that have climbed that ladder is personal
perfection. By this it is meant that a human can, given sufficient resources,
aspire to the fulfillment or personification of self. That is, to completely
fulfill the potentiality implied by one's body in the initial moment of
conception. This usually involves abstracting oneself from one's culture,
individualizing, so that all of the contents of the personality are one's own
acquisitions rather than gifts from the culture within which we exist. This
allows one to pass judgment on generally held values, like our belief that
saving lives is heroic, for instance. This has the negative effect that we
will discover that many of society's values are based on less than solid
foundations while others have actually become negative, relative to the
prospects for our cultural survival.
This can be seen as rising to the level of concern with the survival of the
species. This is the level occupied by Moses, Jesus, and Buddha, for example.
Not that many who arrive at this level of existence will make such profound
contributions.
Humans arrive in life with a fully functional body, including many genetic
tendencies, a unique set of them in fact, so that each life represents a unique
and potentially important carrier for the future of our species. The
manifestation of this potentiality is a lifelong effort, not undertaken by
many. The really great men, such as the three mentioned above reach this state
when still relatively young. Jesus, apparently, at the age of about 30. Most
will not achieve it until very late in life if at all.
For this to happen the carrier will have to have been blessed with a high
degree of native intelligence, a relatively benign childhood, which implies
unusually effective parents, a tendency to spiritual development, an
inclination towards philosophy, and a motivating event in life that activates
all of these potentialities.
For example, look at Jesus. All of these features manifested themselves in his
being in addition to the knowledge of his virgin birth as an activating event.
The disbelief of his contemporaries would provide all of the needed motivation
to activate His special gifts.
The self is the name associated with the fully developed person. It occurs in
individual dreams as a potentiality and therefore a symbol. The most common
symbol for this entity is the mandala. This object is a round disk, usually
glowing or intricate in design. The halo is a manifestation of the mandala and
that is the reason for its inclusion above the heads of paintings of religious
figures. The self can occur in dreams as a human, Jesus for example, or an
unknown person of great wisdom.
Having made a case for integration of complexes, it will now be necessary to
describe a method for doing it. This is not easy since we are talking about a
completely invisible entity whose existence, like that of subatomic particles,
can only be inferred from its effects.
So, that is the first step. Observation of perceptions and acts of the
individual that can't be explained in terms of the conscious personality. If
one is normally passive and something activates an unexpected aggression. If
one finds that some events lead to unusual sexual desire. If one finds that
preoccupation with something like feces interrupts normal activities, then one
can conclude that a complex is making itself felt.
Once a complex is identified, the next step is to completely characterize it.
This will mean investigating the kinds of events that activate it, the kinds of
thoughts and feelings that overcome one when it is activated.
Finally, how to re integrate these features of the personality into the main
conscious complex? The answer is to do it in the same way that any new content
is integrated. Identify associations with other contents.
All of this is not as easy as it sounds. Many problems will arise during the
process. It can take many years to realize the existence of a complex, then
discovering all components of it may not be easy either. If the activities
that activate the complex are forbidden, for one reason or another, then
integration will be very hard indeed. This last is very likely, since why else
would the content have been repressed in the first place. It may be necessary
that another individual help to activate the complex. This will be hard to
convince one's partner to do, especially if the complex is made of antisocial
material that is viewed negatively by the prospective partner.
It is key to realize that it is never necessary to commit any physical act to
activate a complex. It may be convenient, but since the complex itself is
spiritual in nature, some spiritual process will always provide the material in
need. Movies are a marvelous resource in this connection. The body of motion
pictures has now achieved such a state that we can take it that it is, in a
sense comprehensive. Books are another valuable resource. Case studies of
other people with the same sort of complex can be invaluable.
It is necessary to keep in mind the nature of consciousness since the goal is
to make something already in existence and connected in some sense to one's
conscious complex, conscious. Thoughts seldom rise to the level of
consciousness. Speaking and writing, due to the need to concentrate are
essential to fulfilling the effort to assure consciousness.
The test of success is that the unwanted manifestations of the complex pale in
intensity and then slowly fade from experience altogether.
We cannot dismiss the coincidence of the rise of psychology and feminism.
Masculinism has been dominant in our culture for 2000 years which you can read
about in my book, Millennium. Over reliance on one feature of existence for
too long a time will produce personality distortion and therefore the need to
emphasize feminism now. Psychology has concerned itself with identification of
problems emanating from over reliance on masculinism.
Since Masculinism is primarily interested in creativity, that is where the
problems will come from.
Creativity when focused on the personality, will wish to shape the development
of the personality to achieve some wished for goal. For example, to raise a
child in the Christian environment due to the perception that a Christian
society is preferable to some other kind.
This will lead the caregiver to punish unchristian attitudes and to encourage
Christian ones. This can, as we have seen produce a pagan complex.
I guess I haven't pointed it out up until now, but, obviously, the best answer
to this problem is not to create the complex in the first place. This is not
hard, even in a creative culture, it is only necessary to recognize that the
proper answer to unwanted contents of the personality is recognition and the
decision not to elaborate them. Rejection is the source of the problem.
Unfortunately, this realization is the fruit of age and experience and
therefore won't exist at the youthful age of procreation.
The only other answer is to forswear creative child rearing.
If my book, Millennium is read, it should be clear that feminism does not value
creativity and therefore will not wish to train children in ways that can
create complexes.
Overpopulation makes this a more difficult problem. If there is plenty of
room, one can move away from strange personalities, but in a crowded world this
is less and less possible, this is the final reason for the rise of feminism.
It should be clear that complexes can be very destructive indeed, and when
creativity arrives at the point of high technology, the potential for
destruction begins to increase geometrically.
One of the unfortunate features of complexes is that of projection. This
problem is recognized in the Gospels in the demand that we remove the beam from
our eyes before criticizing the mote in our neighbor's. This occurs because,
having repressed disagreeable features in our own personalities they become
invisible to us while becoming more visible in others and at the same time only
too obvious in ourselves when observed by others.
An example of a common projection is the annoyance we feel when observing the
effects of vandals. We have repressed the tendency to vandalism in ourselves
and convinced ourselves that it isn't there. It is and we are quick to notice
it in others, but the annoyance we felt was our own complex letting us know
that it is still there, and only awaiting an opportunity to get control and
manifest itself.
All opinions have the potential to create complexes, depending on their
intensity.
This complex arises when, generally at puberty, we discover we are the creators
of our own personality and don't like criticism of our efforts. Since
authority figures are most notable for their criticism, we like to reject them.
This is one of the few that occur naturally, that is without intervention by
other humans, other than, perhaps, to communicate to the child admiration for
hubris.
Information and examples can be found amongst divorce proceedings, Christian
conversion, movies, and novels.
Common symptoms are rejection of authority figures such as God, Christ, The
King or President, the father or husband.
The solution in this case is recognition of the need for an authority in one's life.
Closely related to the Authority complex, but induced externally as with other
complexes. Produced by parental belittlement, and/or peer belittlement, peers
using superficial differences as a motive for exclusion. Exclusion is the
source of the creative energy behind the complex formation. It is safe to say
that the peers suffer from a superiority complex, which is a compensation for
their own inferiority complex. It produces sensitivity to criticism and a
superiority reaction. This is a very common complex. Examples abound in the
media.
This generally occurs when the mother communicates to the infant that failure
to use the toilet will result in rejection, especially if the infant is too
young to grasp the concept of toilets.
Information and examples can generally only be found in patient histories due
to the general distaste for the subject.
Patients are commonly afflicted with the conviction that they are turning to
feces.
This generally results from disapproval of sexual expression by parents.
Information and examples can be found among patient histories, movies, and
novels.
Common symptoms are inability to perform sexually and perception of sexual
expression as negative.
Sexuality complexes are common and proceed from many causes. One of the most
common, especially in women is a masturbation complex. This is produced when
the mother, typically, reacts harshly to the discovery of the child indulging
in this practise. In the past it wasn't uncommon for the child's hands to be
tied to stop it.
This normally occurs in males and usually results from rejection by the mother.
Some mothers, due to their own insecurity, will take pains to create insecurity
in their sons that only they can assuage, so that they can be assured of
continued efforts throughout their lives. This can be done by leaving the
child isolated in his room until they are sure of rising panic and then being
sure that they are the only one to bring relief.
Information and examples can be found among Greek mythology (Oedipus), movies,
and novels. One current movie depicting this complex is Jezebel's Kiss, from
Columbia.
Common symptoms are pursuit of mother figures for spouses and inability to
perform sexually due to the proscription against incest.
This normally occurs in females and results from rejection by the father.
Information and examples can be found among movies, and novels.
Common symptoms are pursuit of father figures for a spouse.
Excellent examples of this are contained in the movies, A Woman Possessed from
Academy, and the more current Never Talk to Strangers with Rebecca DeMornay.
This usually results from disapproval of the sex of the child by the parent.
Information and examples can be found among movies and novels.
Common symptoms are identification with the opposite sex via enhancement of
opposite sex features such as female aggression which results in inability to
establish a permanent romantic relationship due to the inability of the male to
perform sexually. Male passivity, opposite sex clothing and hair, and
culturally induced homosexuality are also common.
From this description, it should be clear that this is one of the causes of the
feminist movement. Society values males more highly than females, leading to
jealousy and desire in women to be men. When a sufficient percentage of
females adopt this attitude, feminism oriented towards the acquisition of equal
rights between the sexes is to be expected in a masculinist culture. Since
this is less noticeable in feminist cultures we can conclude that feminism
relies on masculinist aggression.
The carrier of the complex will tend to identify the complex as a feature of
one's being and therefore, due to self love, as valuable. This will lead one
to want to keep it, however problematic its manifestations. It is frequently
rationalized as a problem for society in that they don't approve. An example
of this would be the male that displaces his sexuality onto the more acceptable
to his parent, gun. He will be emotionally dependent on the gun as an
expression of masculine identity and will then reject any attempt by authority
to restrict ownership of guns in any way. This is only one reason for the
American preoccupation with guns and probably not one of the more important
ones.
From this discussion it should be clear that complexes are an ubiquitous
phenomena usually unrecognized, consciously at least, among the general public.
The problems emanating from complexes are generally dealt with via the criminal
justice system which is perfectly inappropriate and more or less useless except
for limiting the possibilities for expression by the sufferer. Subjectively,
one is inclined to say that the incidence of complexes is on the rise, as are
opinionated human beings. This would seem to arise from the democratic impulse
which suggests to all humans that their opinion is as valid as the next
person's. As with everything in life, opinions aren't free either.
Complexes, as with all things, have a history that, given the preceding
description can be discerned.
Keeping in mind that creativity, when applied to the human personality, is the
cause of complexes, and noting the rise of creativity among western humans
during Aristotelian times, and then comparing that to what was happening
amongst the Jews, we can conclude that complex formation, especially the
authority or inferiority complex, had become a problem, and Judaism was the
answer.
I think it reasonable to subdivide Judaism into two parts. One of these parts
is the description of man's relation to God. The outline of this relationship
is that of a superior being, incapable of wrong, since He is the owner of
creation to a small though important feature of creation, man, prone to evil,
particularly in rebellion against God. If this aspect of Judaism is removed
and the remainder of the Mosaic Law is scrutinized it will be seen that the
other main issue, to which Judaism is directed is the personal health of
individual Jews.
So, we can take it from this that the primary motive in establishment of the
ideology was the need to deal with feelings of inferiority that emanate from
authority complexes. This should be no surprise considering the nature of the
Jews and their situation, in bondage to the Egyptians.
The next event of significance in the history of complexes is the arrival of
Jesus.
One of the most notable differences between Judaism and Christianity was the
position and attitude towards sin within it. Sin becomes ubiquitous,
inescapable by any mere mortal, and must needs be dealt with by confession.
In dealing with complexes, as was previously pointed out, the primary problem
is recognition. Once recognized, complexes lose much of their power over
humans. So, the utility of confession becomes immediately apparent. One could
reasonably conclude that complexes had, in the time between Moses and Jesus
become more of a problem, both in power and kind. Presumably, recognition has
developed that, not only is there a problem with authority, but also with sex.
Thus the prominence of Mary Magdalene. We can also surmise that the Mosaic
law, with all of its intricate rules about the role of sex within the Jewish
community was the creative force behind sexual complexes.
So, the rise of the creative principle, in mankind, represented in these times
by the Roman Empire, brings with it more complexes and more need for
psychological methods for dealing with them.
The next moment in history of interest in tracing complexes is that moment that
I would identify as the apex of human creativity in the West. The time of
Tolstoy, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. The end of the Renaissance. Because this
leads directly to the rise of clinical psychology. Freud arrives, followed by
Jung, and many others in the twentieth century. At about the same time the
first recorded anti-human complex appears in Jack the Ripper. After that, much
studying of complexes occurs and humans possessed by violent complexes become
more common, especially in America. One thinks of Richard Speck, the Texas
Tower massacre, Theodore Bundy, and Jeffrey Daumer. With many less dramatic
instances occurring in between these landmark cases. Not only are they more
frequent, they are more intense. The Daumer case involves homosexuality and
cannibalism, while Jack the Ripper was only a killer of harlots.
So, we can conclude that, while the characterization is no doubt important to
man's understanding, it is of no great utility in the resolving of complexes
amongst the masses of humanity.
Instead we have to look to the East, where we see no signs of complexes. We
also note that the East is decidedly uncreative and feminist. So, once again,
the answer, for us, would appear to be feminism.
Finally, it seems only rational to conclude that pornography has a far more
noble purpose than to degrade humanity, rather it is intended to ameliorate the
problems of sexual complexes by making the reality of human sexuality
inescapable.
In contemplating history from this perspective, one concludes that creativity,
especially in the hands of the species being operated upon, is a problematic
business, leading to great errors. This should be no surprise, however, when
we consider the likelihood of improvement of the species by the random approach
envisioned by Darwin. Almost all changes have to be expected to produce
degradation and death, so perhaps creativity being exercised by the species
isn't such a bad innovation after all. It isn't clear that anything of
significance has been accomplished relative to the extension of the viability
of the species, but perhaps we have overlooked a minor change that will, in the
fullness of time turn out to be crucial.