tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post5051305550964332706..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Against the Seduction of the Left by Reactionary FuturologyDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-30621575615393543132013-01-11T20:02:13.529-08:002013-01-11T20:02:13.529-08:00Thank you very much for critiquing TPM on technolo...Thank you very much for critiquing TPM on technology! I read them every day during the U.S. attorneys period, but the hagiography for iphones was not only annoying, it seems to me like a hole in their reporting. I would frequently write in and say "instead of just citing something that was said on Twitter, would you please cover Twitter the corporation? How can you call yourselves muckrakers with this gigantic hole in what you want to scrutinize, when it's something that obviously has a large degree of concentrated power?" Eventually I quit going.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-82513396881682258472011-08-19T10:15:19.141-07:002011-08-19T10:15:19.141-07:00Hey, Jim. I have long suspected that what many thi...Hey, Jim. I have long suspected that what many think of as the exhibition of intelligence is non-negligibly a matter of ritual class-signaling.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-81544413854975570072011-08-19T10:12:24.680-07:002011-08-19T10:12:24.680-07:00Hey, Sam. As Mike Davis declares in Planet of Slu...Hey, Sam. As Mike Davis declares in <i>Planet of Slums</i>, given the number of lives it would save reliable free access to clean water should be considered the world's ultimate miracle drug.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-52607203049819135552011-08-19T08:38:46.957-07:002011-08-19T08:38:46.957-07:00Hi Dr. Carrico,
This is an excellent post, as usu...Hi Dr. Carrico,<br /><br />This is an excellent post, as usual. I think one of the greatest dangers of reactionary futurology is that it's a belief system that focuses on waiting to solve problems at some undefined period in the future. In reality, there are already plenty of low-tech and high-tech medical interventions that could reduce human suffering. Examples of cheap and simple therapies include deworming medications. More advanced medical therapies include marrow transplants to cure AIDS and stem cells to heal paralysis, both of which are currently in clinical trials.<br /><br />If countries like the USA and China didn't spend so much money on wars and military posturing, they could reduce human suffering on a massive scale. I wish I knew how to convince government and business leaders of the importance of investing in health instead of militarism.Samhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559007215097690392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-57911881809361099892011-08-19T05:35:18.146-07:002011-08-19T05:35:18.146-07:00> And at the extreme edge of that fraud and dec...> And at the extreme edge of that fraud and deception<br />> and hyperbole we find in futurological formulations<br />> and narratives the circumscription of the open futurity<br />> inhering in the ineradicable diversity of stakeholders<br />> to our shared world by the imposition of a static vision<br />> of "The Future," a funhouse mirror reflecting our parochial<br />> fears and infantile vices back at us, a reassuring and<br />> reactionary amplification of the terms in which elite-incumbent<br />> interests rule the present promoted as "natural development"<br />> or "accelerating change," a celebration of frictionless<br />> capital flows. . .<br /><br />Or even more irritatingly, promoted as "rationality".<br /><br />Taking Ayn Rand seriously is only "rational", dontcha<br />know?<br /><br />What are you, some kind of IQ denalist?jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com