mad cows and sane marxists

[g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx (g.maclennan)]

Louis P., good friend and comrade, has wearied of the unending slaughter at
the front and wishes to talk of other things.  I sympathise wholeheartedly
and I too share his facination for the politics of the cow plague.

So, although I have lost any hopes for this list being once more a serious
and open forum,  for a while let us play at being in a time Before Lord Adolfo.

Louis has already been taken to task by Comrade Brian C., in a rather snooty
fashion I may add, for his comment on the unnaturalness of feeding meat to cows.

There is I think a very significant point here and I am very unsure of which
is the way to go.  Moreover as I am making a speech on environemental
politics soon I would be happy to have some feed back.

I think from  my reading that the crucial crime was the relaxing of the
regulations on the production of protein from the infected sheep.
Specifically the Thatcher government permitted the use of lower
temperatures. Protein is simply protein.  Its origins do not matter. If my
sources are correct the economic rationalist Thatcher  Governement was
successful in defining state *regulations* as state *red tape* and so
infected protein was produced.

So what we have here is an instance not of the violation of the natural
order by science but of bad science.  As a consequence our line of attack on
this question should be that profits were put before people, not that
natural laws were broken.

Now having said that I am vary mindful of Bhaskar's strictures about
Prometheanism especially the notion that science can fix everythings.
Prometheanism has it that there are no natural limits to human development.
Perhaps comrade Brian is tending towards this.  Perhaps not. But the point
remains that if all of Britain had shared Comrade Louis' views as to what is
natural and what is not then the problem would not have occurred. Politics
Comrade Brian would do well to ponder can never be reduced to the cognitive.
There is always the ethichal category.

Whatever the case Comrade Chris B. who was I believe the first to post on
this issue is very correct in his judgement of its importance.  Plagues like
the mad cows disease are both a challenge and an opportunity to Marxists
especially those of us who want to integrate green and red politics and who
live in advanced capitalist countries.  But as always getting the analysis
correct is the crucial and the difficult thing.

regards

Gary
g.maclennan
school of media & journalism
qut




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