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The Failure Of The Left
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/current-alert-sp-298539227/cogitations-archive/769-the-failure-of-the-left.htmlDate Written: 2014-07-08 Publisher: Media Lens Year Published: 2014 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23658 Leftists have been late to the party when it comes to raising the alarm on climate change. The reliance on corporate media makes it difficult for anyone questioning the narrative of consumerism and progress to get their message out. Abstract: -- Excerpt: Leftists are typically rooted in the 17th century Western Enlightenment conviction that humanity should use reason, notably the scientific method, to radically transform both society and the natural world to the benefit of mankind. Leftists have been reluctant to perceive a fundamental problem with high-tech industrial 'progress' per se, focusing instead on the need to share the fruits more equably. Greens argue that the 'conquest of nature' (both human and environmental) delivers pyrrhic victories because human reason is simply not equal to the task. The complexity and unknown (and perhaps unknowable) nature of the human and natural systems involved means that in 'improving' one aspect of life, we very often create entirely unforeseen and perhaps unmanageable chaos elsewhere. The left just did not want to hear the bad news that there might be a deep problem with the scientific-industrial project, with the whole idea that the world can be endlessly 'improved'. While corporate elites put themselves first and leftists prioritised humanity, greens argued that we should respect the needs of the ecosystem as a whole. |