> -----Original Message-----
> In one corner, wearing the
> black hats, we've got the brownies and the fundies. In the other,
> wearing the white hats, we've got Prince Charles, Louis Proyect, and
> the ghost of Engels. I wonder which hat the Marx who was critical of
> romantic anticapitalism would be wearing.
Hard to say, I'm still waiting for the lab results to ascertain what, exactly, is the content of pp 409-410 of the Grundrisse that was appended.
Let's hear it for Engels, though. His is a rare voice of skepticism in an era that was besotted with the idea of scientific progress. Trying to keep up with the latest research findings, especially in health-related matters, is pure torture though these days. Just the other day I was reading that scientists now believe that calcium-rich diets *cause* osteoporosis -- they don't alleviate it -- standing previously accepted findings on their head. Likewise, a drug that was thought to help prevent breast cancer is now suspected of perhaps *triggering* cancer if used too long. Similar revisionism occurs constantly.
Color me pantheist. As I've said before, I consider organized religion pernicious nonsense, but I do think there is a natural order to the world and that we should proceed with humility in contemplating any action that could harm that order. Ultimately, none of us is going to get out of this world alive and there is just so much that science can do to reorder this temporary existence to our greater liking without defeating that very purpose.
I'm a sucker for nature documentaries and was totally bowled over this week on viewing David Attenborough's The Life of Birds on PBS. What a miracle of life these creature are -- from geese that can navigate by the stars to tiny hummingbirds able to survive hundreds of miles of ocean travel migrating from Texas to South America. The natural world is an awesome place; I don't want misguided scientists to screw it up.
Carl
P.S. The office system administrator now assures me that my e-mail is working properly. Sorry for the earlier blizzard of Remick-grams today. Hope this didn't prompt anyone on the list to install an anti-Remick filter.