Compare that to incredibly well-informed, thoughtful and analytically precise piece Patrick Bond sent us on the situation in South Africa. The situation there demonstrates just how deadly this anti-scientific obscurantism can be. The the rate of HIV infection and AIDS has skyrocketed in the decade since the ANC took power precisely because the government failed to engage in the one most effective strategy -- more so in the context of a third world economy -- education about prevention. Of course, if you don't think HIV causes AIDS, then why do any education about prevention? Some of the data that comes out of South Africa is absolutely horrifying -- projections that, with the current rate of infection, progression to full-blown disease and mortality, it could become a white majority country a few decades down the road. To talk about Mbeki as a "smart, serious cat" given his willful blindness in the face of such a catastrophic assault on his people is to enter into the world of the surreal, IMHO. Whatever his other strengths, he has been shown to be a "cat" with one huge case of myopia.
Finally, I can't help but notice that we have trotted out here an early 21th century version of that old Stalinist shibboleth of "proletarian" vs. "bourgeois" science. While there are very real interlocking relationships between a field such as medical science and the existing system of power relations, such as Patrick Bond's essay does a fine job of exposing, the notion that science can be reduced to some position of power, that there is no autonomy, no logic internal to the scientific project as a scientific project, must be rejected. There is no proletarian or anti-corporate science of determining what the etiology of a disease is, and the suggestion that there is, will be rightfully held up to ridicule.
> > I have no difficulty sitting by quietly during
> > discussions of the metaphysics of whiteness,
> > precisely
> > because it is so clear that such discourse has no
> > impact on the real world politics of the
> > anti-racist
> > struggle.
> yes, leo, and the UFT is doing so much with all of
> its deep insights on race
> to advance the "anti-racist" struggle. what a joke.
> > But this shit just makes me crazy, I have to
> > admit, because there are people who listen to this
> > anti-science obscurantism
> how is it that serious scientist, no matter their
> politics, who don't buy
> into the standard AIDS theory have become standard
> bearers of anti-science
> obscurantism?
> > and conspiracy theory
> > explanations of HIV and AIDS,
> who said anything about a conspiracy theory? you'll
> have to tell me which one
> you are referring to 'cuz i ain't got no AIDS
> conspiracy theory.
> > and do real harm to
> > themselves,
> all 11 people that i know who has taken themselves
> off of the drugs or been
> encouraged to do so has gotten better and stayed
> better. no that's not
> scientific evidence of anything but it sure is
> powerful anecdotal evidence
> that should be examined.
> > eschewing medical regimens which could, at
> > the very least, prolong their life and
> > dramatically
> > improve the quality of their life.
> triple protease is not so much of a help as much as
> it is much less toxic,
> therefore much less deadly...
> > And if that wasn't
> > bad enough, we now have Mbeki bringing the entire
> > ANC
> > government in South Africa into serious disrepute
> > with
> > this pseudo-progressive mindlessness.
> could it possibly be that a smart, serious cat like
> mbeki actually found
> compelling enough evidence to do what he did? or is
> mbeki just less
> vulnerable to foolishness than you are?
> > It's time to
> > bring Bebel's apt phrase back, and talk about "the
> > socialism of fools."
> what? a fool is somebody who makes hasty remarks
> such as you have in this
> missive.
> > It is entirely right for people with HIV/AIDS and
> > HIV/AIDS activists to refuse to be passive,
> > non-decision making bystanders in their individual
> > medical care and in the general medical fight
> > against
> > the disease, to demand that they be active
> > partners in
> > this process.
> well, yes, except i'm of the opinion that they are
> fighting a non-existant
> enemy. people are dying horrible deaths, no doubt.
> but not, imo, for the
> reason that most HIV activist think they are. if you
> wanna fight with me
> based on the facts, ok. but its a little dishonest
> to imply that i do not
> support their right to act aggresivly in search of
> the truth.
> > There is a world of difference between
> > that posture, one of empowerment, and rejecting
> > medical science and knowledge, head and body, one
> > of
> > choosing ignorance, in the struggle against this
> > disease.
> who said anything about rejecting medical science? i
> did say something about
> being highly sceptical of what passes for medical
> science and not trusting
> doctors. science is cool. science that serves
> corporate interest and, more
> generally, the status quo, is bullshit. AIDS
> science, in my opinion, is the
> latter.
> > There is an overwhelming consensus within the
> > professional medical community that HIV is the
> > causative agent of AIDS,
> yeah, and so what? when did you start putting faith
> in the overwhelming
> consensus of professionals on any matter? that is
> not a very healthy
> intellectual habit.
> > and that it must be
> > controlled -- and hopefully, one day, eliminated
> > --
> > for the disease to be stopped. To deny this is to
> > promote a deadly ignorance.
> ii'm not denying that anybody is dying, only that
> AIDS is diverting folk from
> more productive avenues of inquiries about those
> deaths. \
> chris niles
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
agitation are men who want crops without plowing the
ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its
waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --
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