Re: so what?

Boris writes,

<<Enlightenment ideologies have undermined
anthropocentric and terracentric worldviews, and they
have gotten people to reflect on the links between
humanity and other creatures, as well as on the
vastness of the universe and the multiplicity of
worlds.  These achievements are not to be
discounted.>>

These achievements are not to be discounted, Boris is
correct.  But the rhetoric of what enlightenment and
scientific thought is for has little to do with their
actual application.  Take for instance the Space
Shuttle Program.  We are now hearing from both Bush
and Sharon that the astronauts did not die in vain.  I
keep hearing, "Their work will live on in the
advancement of MANKIND."  I'm sure some of the
scientists are good people and would love to have them
as my neighbor. But the program itself, while it may
include a spider giving to them from sixth graders for
research, will only add more to stifle rather than
liberate humanity.  

This is not something that's going to help the
Palestians or for that matter most people looking to
be freed from the shackles of the Bushes and Sharons
of the world.  Lets remember, science in-itself does
not exist outside of political and economic realities,
and our reality is an extremely inegalitarian one
which would even make the Sultans and chiefs of past
historical systems look like everyday folks in
comparison.  So in comparison to the enlightenment
produced in a capitalist environment, I'm going to say
I prefer the anthropocentric worldviews of past
historical systems.  While they may have distorted our
ability to understand an aunt colony or a detailed
surveillance of the earth, at least it limited the
access of the power elite to produce a bomb that could
be launched hundreds of miles away to enter your caves
and suck out your eye balls and lungs.  But if we can
produce an egalitarian system I'd be the first to
support the Space Shuttle program. 

the pro-modernist but anti-egalitarian,
Khaldoun

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