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NO HEALTH WITHOUT DISEASE: Some people like to imagine that man will one day conquer disease and that, in accordance with the fruits of social progress, he will subsequently live in a utopia where health, justice, peace, happiness, prosperity, sanity, fraternity, beauty, truth, goodness, and love will reign supreme. Now while not wishing to deprive such people of their fond hopes for the future, it nevertheless occurs to me that they are unlikely to materialize in a life conditioned by dualistic exchanges, as is invariably the case with human life. For it would certainly seem, if precedence is anything to judge by, that health cannot prevail without sickness, justice without injustice, peace without some form of war, happiness without sadness, prosperity without poverty, sanity without insanity, etc., and that, as soon as man plugs a hole in one context, a fresh hole eventually appears elsewhere, and with greater determination than on the previous occasion, so that he is forever juggling reality into new patterns, forever creating new manifestations of the basic polar attributes.

Admittedly, there is a fair chance that man may eventually come to terms with the common cold (bearing in mind that there are a hundred or more different viruses with which to deal), influenza, cancer (which also comes in many guises), schizophrenia, and other such contemporary scourges. But no sooner will he have done so than disease will acquire other manifestations in which to maintain the polarity of health and sickness, thereby safeguarding the existence of health while simultaneously providing fresh sources of investigation for both doctors and scientists alike.

In sum, the fight against disease can in no way detract from the fundamental integrity of life. This fight is not an indication of the imperfection of life, as might at first appear, but a part of its overall integrity within the human framework, with its dualistic criteria.