Re: [Marxism] Paper on Japanese nuclear reactors and earth quakes

[dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx]

  ?The bigger issue is to what purpose all this energy being used? The
  logic of capitalist competition which determines patterns of 
  consumption and production in Japan and elsewhere requires that 
  demand and production increase, almost as ends in themselves, and 
  that the consequences be damned --whatever they may be -- so long 
  as the position of the respective section of capital is maintained 
  or improved in relation to its global competitors. That is, we have 
  to compete for no other reason than that we're in the competition --
  or we're here because we're here.?
   Lajany Otum
 
Joaquin wrote along these lines a few weeks ago, that is, the whole conception 
of energy usage 
has to be rethought from the ground up (for example, just make a law that 
states you have to get 
40 MPG of gas in order to drive, limit, by law, the weight and size of every 
vehicle, etc). Leaving 
aside the huge differences, and problems, of ?electrical energy vs 
transportation energy?, he makes 
a good point.
 
But struggles and solutions are not always so catholic in their dynamic. 
Campaigns are waged 
around specific, focused issues (to build or not build a bridge, to limit tail 
pipe exhaust, etc) very 
rarely in this broad way. Even Green Parties that tend to view the world 
through green colored 
glasses can?t really make all the ends meet and implement a well round 
pro-human energy/resource/lifestyle/class solutions. Peoples consciousness 
simply don?t work that way, IMO.
 
Lajany is welcome to question how all this energy is being used. I?ve always 
tried to point out that
changing to CFB and other ?home conservation? methods are of limited effect. In 
my state, only 
about 20% of all electrical energy is used by ?people? at home anyway. The rest 
is commercial 
(building, schools, offices, etc) and industrial (food processing, refineries, 
commodity production, etc). People are still going to use electricity for the 
minimum at the very least but also some small luxuries: 
air conditioning/heating, a bigger TV, refrigeration, etc. Within this people 
can be efficient but growth 
is inevitable.
 
The growing of the India and Chinese economies is almost a force of nature. For 
sure it?s a force 
of imperialism seeking new markets and developing old ones. But there is a 
?base national? interest 
in moving their economies forward. While a needed socialist revolution would be 
great in either country, 
I doubt any such a revolution would do much to slow down energy usage. The 
degree of civilization in 
a society, based on simply a ?better? use of the productive forces for human 
need, is still going to 
require massive amounts of electrical energy. There is no way around this. I 
believe nuclear energy is 
the only way to provide even under the best of circumstances (massive 
conservation along the structure
lines advocated by Joaquin) the energy needed to lift the worlds masses out of 
poverty.

The point is, right now, for the immediate future, the loss of those megawatts 
in Japan is going to be 
felt not just by the Japanese, but by all of us for the megatons of carbon that 
is going to be shot into 
the air as a result of those units being on line. That's a fact on the ground 
now.
 
David________________________________________________
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