Re: Frank Furedi

["Richard Harris" <rhh1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jose wrote:

"the technology to build hybrid cars that yield between 75
and 100 miles a gallon not only exists but is commercially viable today.
There is no reason --apart from maximizing profits-- that the whole
automobile industry could not convert away from the traditional power
plant ...

The capitalists can and do build refrigerators, air conditioners, water
heaters, ovens and all manner of other appliances that are several times
more energy efficient than the average model built today ...

Capital, or rather individual capitals cannot and will not do this.
Their God is Mammon and He does not allow other Gods before Him."
**************************************************************

Not only is this completely right, i.e. a 'fact' about the world, but it is
also the fact that apperently underlies the Furedi politics.

Now let me tell you I am not won over to Furedi's style at all (that might
be obvious.)  I happen to know him and his acolytes as he lives in my town
and is part of its professordom, and he takes the line that building
confidence in humanity's ability to solve problems is at the heart of
building confidence in blieving we can also overthrow capital ~ the biggest
problem we have.

Personally, I think Frank Furedi's arguments appeal more to reactionaries.
I think he thinks that a short term cost.  I think that if you cannot
(pretty) consistently point out the class line  i.e. where you interests
lie, a/the key idea in the bourgeois world, you are missing the key task.
Who else is doing that, if not us?  I do attack the Furedi enterprise.  But
he isn't a techno-optimist (although all of his readers must be forgiven for
making that mistake, in my view.)  He is a human optimist who regards
Capital as the main barrier to progress.

Best wishes

Richard.