Re: "Mad cow" disease

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

                Mr. Proyect,




        While it could be said that BSE results from "violence to ecology",
it is an overstatement.  Diseases such as BSE are readily transferable
between species and may have been doing so for millenia, unknown to us.



        While there is certainly a Luddite aspect to the BSE-CJD scare, there
is also a very technocratic aspect.  Prion diseases, which BSE, CJD, scrapie
and several other relatively rare disorders are thought to be, are especially
frightening for the scientific community.  They have no current explanations
for even why these diseases make organisms ill.  They also have no potential
cures for these diseases.  Furthermore these diseases very much play into an
"Andromeda Strain" scenario for biologists.  It seems that prions are a sort
of biological "Ice Nine" (for those not familiar with Kurt Vonnegut's work,
this is an imagined crystal form of ice which causes water to freeze at
higher than room temperature).



        The technocracy therefore finds them threatening because they change
the biological landscape in ways with which the technocrats cannot cope.
They are tremendously frightening for their world view.  Also, the people who
work in the area of protein conformation, want to emphasize the importance of
their field in relation to this disease.  BSE makes for better copy than
explaining the role of kineases in cell-wall openings.



        The combination of people who assume they know better - and are
therefore justified in altering public policy unilaterally - both those
for and against beef bans and mass stock slaughters, are the very dangerous
elements of the liberal/technocrat bourgeoisie.



        Their attitude is the reason that working-class people assume
that all science and all do-gooders are equal and equally tainted with
self-interest - therefore completely suspect.





        peace



                boddhisatva





     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---