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July 12, 2005
Monbiot, Lysenko and Capitalism
Today’s Moonbat:
Our problem is that, just
as genetics was crushed by totalitarian communism, meaningful action on
climate change has been prohibited by totalitarian capitalism. When I
use this term I don't mean that the people who challenge it are rounded
up and sent to break rocks in Siberia. I mean that it intrudes into
every corner of our lives, governs every social relation, becomes the
lens through which every issue must be seen. It is the total system
which leaves no molecule of earth or air uncosted and unsold. And, like
Soviet totalitarianism, it allows no solution to pass which fails to
enhance its power. The only permitted answer to the effects of greed is
more greed.
Quite. Your pals at Tinker’s Bottom are not allowed to live as they wish, they’re forced into rampant consumerism, ties and a job in the City. Tesco comes round and digs up your vegetables so you cannot practice what you preach and are forced into purchases (with extra added food miles!) to boost their profits.
Yes, really Georges, it’s true. No one is allowed to act in any manner that does not increase profits for the large multi-national corporations. I am not allowed to live without a car because that would reduce profits for the likes of BP. I have been forced to install both central heating and air conditioning to boost my use of both fuel oil and electricity. I am whipped onto flights so as to boost the coffers of the BA shareholders. There are armed police around the farmer’s market making sure that I do not purchase local produce. Snipers employed by WalMart ensure that I never buy an organic vegetable.
Wanker.
July 12, 2005 in Idiotarians | Permalink
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Comments
Nice one.
"Totalitarian capitalism" sounds like the latest "adjectival catch-up", as identified by Tom Wolfe all those years ago.
Robert Hale
Posted by: Robert Hale | Jul 12, 2005 12:04:00 PM
Actually, I think you're too kind to him. 'Cause his claim goes much further than that.
"I mean that it intrudes into every corner of our lives, governs every social relation, becomes the lens through which every issue must be seen."
In his world, the social relations of families, love and marriages must be governed by capitalism. And friendship, and me posting this comment, and all the other relations beteen people must also be governed by capitalism. That's quite a bold, and stupid, claim.
More to Monbiot's "point" though, I think he neglects the fact that the US is based on federalism. Which of course means that the states can, and they have, take measures on their own. One can argue that it isn't very efficient but one can't only point to the federal government and their take on the global warming issue either.
Posted by: Dennis | Jul 12, 2005 12:12:56 PM
George's mates actually resided at Tinker's Bubble (though Bottom somehow seems more appropriate). And the not all the residents there are as convinced as George of the project's success. On the subject of 'totalitarian capitalism' what George fails to understand is that people actually choose to live like this - this is the only system which can guarantee to deliver what we need to sustain ourselves while allowing individuals freedom to pursue whatever goals they wish.
Posted by: Mike Deluis | Jul 12, 2005 1:51:50 PM
I think that by using the soviet union as a comparison for anything in our societies, like Irene Khan did a few weeks ago, is a display of ignorance and even prejudice towards the systems we have adopted.
And this guy is always on TV too. Scary.
Posted by: Brian | Jul 12, 2005 1:56:35 PM
Is it just me, or is the "Soviet" analogy becoming the new "Nazi" analogy?
Posted by: Farmer Joe | Jul 12, 2005 2:21:01 PM
The Communists sent geneticists to break rocks in Siberia????
Posted by: Andy | Jul 12, 2005 2:22:44 PM
I think the guardian should lead the way by reducing their output of newspapers...a heartfelt 50 percent reduction should shame every one else..
Posted by: e m butler | Jul 12, 2005 2:32:58 PM
Andy - So we are told:.
Between 1934 and 1940, under Lysenko's admonitions and with Stalin's blessings, many geneticists were executed (including Agol, Levit, and Nadson) or sent to labor camps. The most well-known Soviet geneticist, Nikolai Vavilov, was arrested in 1940 and died in prison in 1943. Genetics was stigmatized as a "fascist science" and "bourgeois science," in a political stigmatizing similar to the Nazi denouncements of quantum physics and Einstein's theory of relativity as "Jewish science". Some geneticists, however, survived and continued to work in genetics, dangerous as it was.
There are suggestive parallels between that and Global Warming, but not the ones Monbiot imagines. I might yet deal with that over at my place.
Posted by: Andrew McGuinness | Jul 12, 2005 3:13:24 PM
My background is in science,but not at all related to climatology.One of my nice aunts ( as Bertie Wooster might say)literally hates George Bush.When I asked why,she was originally perplexed and then seized on global warming as the cause.I told her she wasn't entitled to have a strong opinion on such a complex subject.She then became very angry; I asked her to convert 20 C into Farenheit(her anwer of "It's hotter than Hell",was at odds with the correct one of 68 F)- to establish some basic knowledge.
Now,one might be embarassed in a situation like this,but my aunt fired back something along the lines of ,"If we wait for evidence,it will be too late".My father ,who was listening with increasing disgust interjected',"For God's sake Alice,since you know nothing of Etruscan architecture,do you feel capable of strong opinions on that also"?
We were asked to leave the house.
I realize this is a bit long,but I'm trying to say the venom isn't based on thought.For people like my aunt,or Georges,anything bad happens because of Bush and Blair and anything good happens in spite of them.
Posted by: colin | Jul 12, 2005 5:18:12 PM
