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other humans and carnivorous animals through insects and down to the smallest virus. The fight-or-flee dilemma arises when two or more of such needs come into direct conflict as to priority. Nothing controversial in that, so what’s the problem? Most humans spend most of their waking hours taking care of these matters, one way or another. There’s no choice in the matter. You’re in the top .0001 percent of the human pyramid if you know without question these needs will be met tomorrow, the next week, the rest of your life —by your own action, your family, or “your” government. There’s also nothing new in the massive distortions that begin to occur beyond the basic needs. Storage of food or other assets just in case there may be a change in the future, endless varieties of food aimed not so much at nutrition as at taste and aesthetics, special food preparation and services. Entertainment “foods” in the form of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc., and back around the cycle to foods that are “good” for you, to keep you healthy. Clothes that not only keep you warm but are made correctly, of a desirable color or texture, made for a variety of occasions, and, of course, in rapidly changing style. Shelter that goes far beyond the hut in the hills, larger and/or in a desirable location, equipped and reequipped with newer furnishings, facilities, decorations, all catering to individual taste and current style primarily, far secondarily to comfort and overstated “need.” Some of these have been brought to the point where it is actually difficult to die. Extensive and expensive life-support systems in institutions are an example. Keep the body alive, never mind the details. In some “civilized” societies, it’s a crime to take your own life. Whom will they prosecute if you’re successful? All such extras and add-ons are stimulated and rationalized by countless inducements, few of which can stand up under intense scrutiny for validity. This is compounded by competition both to acquire and to dispense, which brings into full play the natural physical law of supply and demand. To protect these accumulated items to serve the body which is you: locks on doors, fences around houses, doors and gates, laws and rules, medicines and drugs, guns, police officers in prowl cars, lawyers,