>From: Gordon Fitch <gcf at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: Re: small not beautiful
>Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 09:23:53 -0400
>
>jan carowan:
> > ...
> > What exactly is the source of this animus against technology that makes
>you
> > all rant so and call up the memories of simple minded political utopians
>of
> > the past?
> > ...
>
>Well, a lot of it seems like simple-minded utopianism, for
>one thing. The results of technological innovation are
>complex and often paradoxical.
Mr Fitch, it is paradoxical indeed that the new technologies have given voice to those who then can only speak disparagingly of them. Before the internet, wouldn't you have been muttering your world view to yourself before donuts and coffee at some Krispy Kreme counter in an American subway station?
Consider the results of
>learning how to derive a lot of energy very quickly from
>nuclear fission.
Nuclear fission is not a new technology, the object of Mr Henwood's rant; the US military is no longer the major source of demand for info tech; and however much blame one puts on the scientists for how their ideology of value neutrality allowed involvement in the making of the bomb (did Heisenberg sabotage the German effort?), the main responsibility for the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is clearly that of aggressive proto Cold War American politicians, not scientists and engineers. Your clever retort seems to constitute yet more proof for the rest of the world of America's continued evasion of the horrifying defects in its political system that not only allowed this greatest of human rights violation but also enables all generations since to ignore the crime. Are any of your political candidates ready to admit that the decision to drop the bomb was a terrifying mistake that squelched humanity's greatest hopes after the end of the War? Is your citzenry demanding this of your politicians? To blame a culture-less, state-less technology for these crimes allows you to evade the utter corruption of your political culture.
JC
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