Thursday 5 November 2009

LINK to Guardian article, 1989 changed the world. But where now for Europe? by Timothy Garton Ash
The one thing it [the 1989 revolution] did not change was human nature.
True enough. Neither did it do much to improve our understanding of human nature itself, or of the civilization it has given rise to (i.e. the power structures of state and economy) - all of which is essentially Darwinian. Only we are forbidden from recognizing or acknowledging it as such. Instead we force ourselves to continue the pretence of being rational, rather than Darwinian, animals, with academics like TGA providing us here with their professionally "rationalized" view of our situation.

But like the rest of us - and, if anything, being an academic, even less inclined to admit it - TGA is far more Darwinian than rational. His professionally "rationalized" view of our situation is really a load of bollocks (no matter how eruditely and academically he may package it), that serves his own - misplaced, perverted and unrecognized (because largely subconscious) - Darwinian purpose of exploiting his environment (our globalized civilization) to his personal (and immediate family's) advantage.

In the past, when only small (state/national) elites were in a position to freely exploit both their natural and human environment, using modest technical means which barely impacted global resources and carrying capacity, the situation, notwithstanding its gross injustices and inhumanity, was essentially sustainable, with some civilizations lasting 100s or even 1000s of years.

But now, with EVERYONE - in "progressive" ideological theory, at least - free to exploit both the natural and human environment for what they can get out of them (and in denial of its perverted Darwinian nature), the situation is very different indeed, and wholly unsustainable.

No comments:

Post a Comment