lbo-talk-digest V1 #4770

joanna bujes joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com
Thu Aug 23 10:26:22 PDT 2001


At 06:17 PM 08/22/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Also, and perhaps most importantly, alternative medicine
>advocates seem to have great difficulty in drawing distinctions
>between scientific medicine, per se, and the distorted
>forms in which it often exists within capitalist societies.

When I go see my GP or my gyneacologist and he decides to dedicate five minutes to making medical decisions that will affect my life, how do i draw a distinction between his "science" and his capitalist practice?


>In this respect, the critique of modern medicine which
>is offered by many advocates of alternative medicine
>mirrors the critiques that romantic critics of industrialism
>have been offering for the past couple hundred years.
>And like the romantic critics of industrialism, there seems
>to be a failure to appreciate the extent to which the
>inadequacies of modern medicine like the inadequacies
>of existing industrial societies are due to the distortions
>that capitalism imposes upon it.

Why are the critics of industrialism deemed romantic? It's not an either or thing to be sure, but why should we totally buy into the idea that by making all processes fast and automatic, we are going to improve our lives?

Joanna B.



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