Re: Frank Furedi

["Paul Flewers" <trusscott.foundation@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard says: '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.'

Richard, you're being too kind. I knew Frank Füredi & Co when he did think
that capital was the main barrier to progress. He gave up all that years
ago. Now, his main targets are identical to those of right-wing
libertarians. Look at the way their criticisms of Greenery and ecological
politics coincide. Now, there's a lot to criticise in Greenery, but the
Marxist critique differs from that of right-wing libertarians. He and what
remain of his acolytes condemn big business for being scared to invest and
innovate. It's all 'the culture of low expectations', although Frank is the
biggest victim of it -- from wishing to change the world to whining about it
like some cut-price Julie Burchill. I'm not exaggerating, check out
www.spikedonline.com. It what comes from rejecting the Marxist view of
progress, gutting it of its class content, and being left with an
undifferentiated idea of progress based almost purely upon technology. From
Marxism to technocracy; that's his trajectory.

Paul F