We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, November 5, 2010

The new barbarism: Keeping science out of politics

by Andrew Leonard from Salon

Although the author sees the obvious intent of the most aggressive section of the capitalist class, he is only able to identify them as "climate skeptics". The fact that they are all funded either directly or indirectly by carbon spewing and polluting industries doesn't enter into his otherwise fine report. (See this, this, this, and this.)
Climate skeptics reach a new low. Their goal: Don't let scientists influence policy, period. 
People employed by mainstream media, and I classify Salon as mainstream, are unable to identify the real, underlying, systemic causes of the attack on science. The ruling capitalist class will never let anything to get in the way of their pursuit of profits, the most powerful addiction of all, that will lead humanity, unless we stop it, to its ultimate destruction.

The author is correct in stating that the attack on science is the new barbarism. What he misses is that the system itself is barbaric because it will never allow truth, destruction of habitat, or destruction of humanity to keep the capitalist class from enjoying its addiction.