660. At this point one might ask if the situation could actually have been otherwise. And to this the answer must unfailingly be that it can never be an expression of normality that a macrobeing itself damages to a greater or lesser degree its own normal, and therefore indispensable, microbeings. And since, as we have shown, the Earth is indeed to a certain extent in just such a situation, this situation must certainly be considered an abnormality, in other words, a "disability".
      But a disability always has a cause. And the cause of the disability in the Earth's organism is not difficult to point out. The Earth's organism constitutes an organ in the solar system and receives its life-giving power from the sun. It is therefore in a state of exceptional dependence on the sun. As this state has been disturbed in some way, unfortunate complications will arise, just as they would with any other organism in which the mutual relationship between the organs is upset, and these complications more or less remove the normal living conditions and to a corresponding degree make the normal experience of life difficult. And it is difficulties such as these that characterise terrestrial human beings' existence. These difficulties prove it to be a fact that the Earth's relationship to the sun has, as we have said, become disturbed.