Ah, but Stanley Aronowitz said in his piece in the notorious Science Wars issue of Social Text - the one containing the Sokal hoax - that medicine had done more harm than good in the 20th century!" ----------------------- Frankly, I'm disappointed with this discussion. Surely, there must be a middle ground between nuclear power plants and eating grass. Surely, it must conceivable that by means of human intelligence, education, discussion, and experimentation, we could come up with some honorable and responsible way of living on planet earth.
Having lived in fairly primitive conditions in my life: no personal cars, no indoor plumbing, no TV, no audio equipment, etc., I want to assure everyone that this did NOT feel like gross immiseration. In fact, I remember that period as a little bit of paradise. This is mainly because the social relations I enjoyed then were simply the most wonderful I have ever lived with.
Most Americans live the most impoverished social lives I have ever encountered. As a result, the only thing they think they have is technology and doo-dads and in fact, if they lost these, they would feel that they lost "everything." ....Because, in fact they would have lost "everything." What they fail to see is the peculiarity of their situation. And, having lost all possible social connections, they no longer see these as a source of wealth and joy but as a burden and source of frustration/restriction. Having lived in this country for 40 years now, I am very conscious of how this has affected me too. For example, having lived pretty much alone (other than my kids) for quite a long time, I can no longer imagine being able to have an intimate/romantic relationship without experiencing utter terror. But, I don't see the problem being that relationships are in themselves terrifying; I see the problem as being that I have become so brainwashed by this culture that they appear to be terrifying.
Sigh,
Joanna