What is the cure?

I've begun to read editorials and opinions from people who wait for things like pandemics, hoping that this will be the one to return balance to the planet. Their perspective is one of equilibrium; they feel that human activity has thrown the natural balance off and that every one and everything would be much better off if only there were fewer people in the world.

That sentiment brings to mind that scene in The Matrix where Agent Smith is interrogating Morpheus:

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I've realized that you are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague. And we...are the cure.

I'm not so sure the sheer number of people on this planet by itself is the primary issue. I believe that we simply need to rediscover how to achieve balance in our daily lives and in our approach to the world around us. The "equilibrium" Agent Smith spoke of is merely living in harmony with our environment, something that should be a basis for our society. But rather than a guiding principle, this idea is merely one spoke in a cycle in which balance is discovered, taken for granted, then thrown out the window in the pursuit of a short cut to happiness.

Working to achieve that balance, that harmony with the natural and social environments we are surrounded by, would eliminate mot of the problems many people believe a "culling" would solve.