Keith Hudson wrote:
> As to 2. and 3. above, the present infrastructure of science in developed
> countries (and America in particular) is very much larger and potentially
> much more powerful than the scientists and intellectuals of Germany in the
> 30s. Various branches of them are, of course, involved in developing
> armaments (weapons themselves, and delivery systems from satellites) but,
> generally, I think they're in the position that the economist, Thorstein
> Veblen, forecasted a long time ago (though he was thinking in terms of the
> power of engineers within factories). Scientists and intellectuals could
> cripple a nation that became dominated by Fundamentalists.
While I certainly wish Keith was right on this one, I'm afraid he's way
too optimistic.
You might be right (at least in the short-to-medium term). One telling argument against me is why did the strong advice of the CIA and the State Department not prevail over the Bush-Cheney-Wolfowitz team? From what we've heard, they were quite certain that what has since happened since the invasion of Iraq was much on the cards -- in particular, the spread of terrorism generally. All I can think of is that, in this instance, the whole matter of oil supplies is so overwhelmingly important for the future of America, the politics overcame the warnings. (See my other posting, 176. The new Great Game, to follow shortly.)
Looking at Israel and USA, which already are "dominated
by Fundamentalists" (religious and/or economic ones), it seems that
scientists and intellectuals not only fail to cripple the fundamentalist
leadership, but even enable and enhance it, providing the technical and
PR means of oppression.
I don't know enough about Israel to comment on this. The fundamentalist (ultra-orthodox) Jews certainly have a lot of extraordinary state privileges but (from what friends who've been to Israel tell me) they are despised, even hated, by many thoughtful Jews. You may be right -- they might have a sort of veto on Israeli politics -- but I'm still doubtful that they have a predominant effect.
Case in point: The Reichstag fire, err 9/11,
and all that followed from it.
I don't see the point here.
Keith Hudson
Chris
_________________________________________________________________________
Q: "Can you name any school in USA that would grant a PhD in Economics to
Thorstein Veblen, assuming he wrote the same way he did in 1899 ?"
A: "No, there are none that I can think of." --Lester Thurow, Dean of the
Sloan School at MIT, 2003 during a Veblen lecture at Carleton College.
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Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
