I have sent the following to the LA Times in response to Rifkin's piece. I
would sincerely appreciate any Angelinos who may read that paper on a regular
basis letting me know if they publish it:
---
I would sincerely appreciate your publication of the following in response to
Jeremy Rifkin's piece in the February 3 L.A. Times. I have included two
verisions. The first is 513 words long, which exceeds the length called for
by the guidelines on your website. The second has been edited to a bare
minimum of 311 words. I believe the subject is important enough to warrant
the longer version and ask that you publish it.
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In his editorial in the February 3 L.A. Times Science Section ("Cloning: What
Hath Genomics Wrought"), Jeremy Rifkin employs his usual smooth rhetorical
manipulation to enlist his reader's most primal instincts and fears in his
on-going campaign against the progressive use of technology. Long ago, in
his poorly thought-out book "Entropy: A New World View", Rifkin clearly
defined his goal of undermining our civilization's most basic values, setting
himself up as the ideological leader of a fundamentally reactionary retreat
to the imagined virtues of a pre-industrial world. He has now stepped up his
program of opposition to the technologies that promise cures to diseases that
have plagued humanity throughout all of its history.
Pointing to the usual villains ("evil transnational corporations"), Rifkin
calls on the ultimate trump card, "God, the creator", as the foundation for
his anti-progress fear-mongering. What Rifkin and his followers on the
extreme left wing of the environmental movement (and their strange bedfellows
on the religious right) don't like to talk about is the fact that we are on
the verge of a wonderful new era of medicine, made possible by the genetic
technology they now explicitly paint as demonic. And what they also fail to
disclose is that their opposition to genetic technology is deeply
inconsistent with the rights of individuals to choose their own destinies.
Lining up with the Almighty, Rifkin wraps himself up in the "mom and apple
pie" virtues of the parent-child relationship, as he lays the foundation for
yet new intrusions into people's rights to control their own lives. In fact,
his campaign against genetic science is just another step down the road to
rule by the "virtuecrats" who would dictate the right and wrong of every
minute aspect of our lives, right down to the level of our molecular biology
and most intimate genetic identity.
Far from the coming age of human genetic medicine being one of "the people
versus nasty corporations", it will actually be a race between reason and
fear. And we should be clear that there is a whole industry built around
feeding and manipulating fear. But as he builds a career on fear, what can
Rifkin tell the children who suffer from diseases that can be cured by the
medical techniques being developed with the powerful new tools of genetic
science? That they must suffer and die because a cure would be "un-natural"?
That their afflictions are "the will of God"?
Unfortunately, most scientists are not Rifkin's equal as polemicists. They
have not made a career of playing on people's fears to sell books and create
a Washington "public interest" power base. Rifkin and the other purveyors of
panic have stolen a march in the public discourse on genetic science, because
the people who have actually been working to improve the human condition in
hundreds of laboratories around the world have made the assumption that
people should have the right to choose their own destinies. It's time that
we look more closely at those who would cite homespun virtues in the name of
controlling our lives "for our own good."
Greg Burch
3500 Chase Tower
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 226-1183
<}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{><}{>
In his editorial in the February 3 L.A. Times Science Section ("Cloning: What
Hath Genomics Wrought"), Jeremy Rifkin employs smooth rhetorical manipulation
to enlist his reader's most primal instincts and fears in his on-going
campaign against the progressive use of technology. Starting with the usual
villains ("evil transnational corporations"), Rifkin then calls on the
ultimate trump card, "God, the creator", as the foundation for his
anti-progress fear-mongering.
What Rifkin doesn't like to talk about is the fact that we are on the verge
of a wonderful new era of medicine, made possible by the genetic technology
he now explicitly paints as demonic. And what he also fails to disclose is
that his opposition to genetic technology is deeply inconsistent with the
rights of individuals to choose their own destinies. Lining up with the
Almighty, Rifkin wraps himself up in the "mom and apple pie" virtues of the
parent-child relationship, as he lays the foundation for yet new intrusions
into people's rights to control their own lives. His rhetoric is another
step down the road to rule by the "virtuecrats" who would dictate the right
and wrong of every minute aspect of our lives, right down to the level of our
molecular biology and most intimate genetic identity.
What can Rifkin tell the children who suffer from diseases that can be cured
by the medical techniques being developed with the powerful new tools of
genetic science? That they must suffer and die because a cure would be
"un-natural"? That their afflictions are "the will of God"?
Unfortunately, most scientists are not Rifkin's equal as polemicists. They
have not made a career of playing on people's fears to sell books and create
a Washington "public interest" power base. It's time that we look more
closely at those who would cite homespun virtues in the name of controlling
our lives "for our own good."
Greg Burch
3500 Chase Tower
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 226-1183
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:03:30 MDT