Conjunctions

A couple of political/philosophy links for today:

• Thomas Riggins explores the possible answers provided by Bertrand Russell to the question:  What are the conditions of socialism?

• Cassiodorus at DailyKos ponders the incompatibility between democracy and capitalism.

• In a similar vein: Dylan Ratigan on Corporate Communism.

• Following upon my earlier post today on tolerance, an argument against, propped up by the usual straw man and displaying a characteristic lack of empathy. (Update: Hate to link to this actually ... ) 

• On a lighter note, Alexander R. Galloway reviews Mehdi Belhaj Kacem’s L'esprit du nihilisme: Une ontologique de l'Histoire, and positions MBK within contemporary French philosophy.

Enjoy.

This report from World Public Opinion.org is both troublesome and inspiring.  A poll of 24 counties around the world reveals that “[l]arge majorities perceive that people in their nation are not completely free to express unpopular views, that opposition parties do not get a fair chance to express their views and try to influence government decision, and that legislators have limited freedom to express views that differ from their political party.”  On average, only 24 % of the polled respondents categorized their country as ‘Completely free’ on the first question, while no less than 30 % responded with ‘Not very free’.

While it is troubling that so few people experience political freedom and tolerance, there are a few inspiring facts hidden in the report.  The lack of perceived tolerance in the US is remarkable for a country supposedly built on the notion of freedom, while the newly tolerant South Africa is a source of personal pride.  Pity that the Netherlands was not included in the poll, not only because it my home and it would have been interesting in comparison with SA, but mostly because tolerance has historically been a Dutch national value, one that has lately been contextualized to some extent.

However, the most inspiring aspect of this report is the fact that, if tolerance is perceived to be lacking to this extent, the belief in the importance and value of tolerance must be even more widespread.  It seems the dream of a peaceful and just society is a shared global value. One should bear that in mind when listening to the warmongers and fear merchants.

In an enlightening article at DailyKos entitled ‘We knew how to profit, not how to protect’, Unenergy provides us with a few significant and related lists. Firstly there is an overview of the natural and man-made disasters that have struck over the last few years.  A quick look at the rundown for 2009 is indeed troubling.  His summary of the situation is simultaneously accurate and familiar, which leads him to ask some very pertinent questions.  Here is the relevant section:

Our pursuit of energy, being predominantly through the exhumation and combustion of stored carbon based fossil fuels, is intensifying the impact of these natural disasters. Further, when something goes wrong and an energy related disaster occurs, the impact can be devastating on an economy as well as impacting many more people negatively. Particularly long periods without that major supply of energy people have learnt to depend upon.
So why have we not challenged the status quo? Why do we continue pursuing the majority of our energy needs through the extraction and consumption of stored carbon or fossil fuels? Wouldn't the 'energy' companies recognize the harm their industry can cause and get actively involved in transitioning to cleaner forms of energy production? Forms which require less time and effort hunting for new fields, produce less waste, do not use up a depletable resource, do not threaten the very fabric of life.
But if this is not incentive enough, the increasing frequency of warnings of fossil fuel depletion coupled with the wildly fluctuating energy prices in oil, coal and gas, would it not make sense to pursue stable forms of energy which can be produced within a countries own borders?

As if his article has not been shocking enough so far, Unernergy proceeds to answer these questions with some more lists: the list of warnings by scientists and others since the 70’s that have been ignored and misrepresented, and the list of clean energy and energy security projects that have been thwarted. 

And all this misrepresentation and thwarting have been financed and organized by large (oil) corporations and their (media) allies.

Read the article to remind yourself that you have been buggered, along with the rest of us.