A balanced and forgiving summary Platt. Roll on those public enquiries (a
form of statism? surely not?).
Pzeph.
> From: "Platt Holden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 10:47:01 -0500
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: MD MOQ and other species
>
> Hi Elephant, Danila, All:
>
> ELEPHANT:
>> Platt would probably point out that things go extinct every day in the
>> normal course of things, and he'd be right. He might add that if the global
>> ecosystem has let this plant-butterfly subsystem get down to an acre and a
>> half with no noticeable ill effects on the world as a whole, then there is
>> nothing at stake in it's extinction. This is an attractive argument, except
>> that proves too much. The acre and a half situation is something alot of
>> species are on their way too with our help, so the argument I'm conjecturing
>> on Platt's behalf could apply to about half the species you care to mention,
>> and if you do apply it to all those species, there wouldn't be much left to
>> keep the system going, or even to call a 'system'. Remember that the
>> situation that we've inherited is something that's been worked up over
>> millions of years, and something which we still don't completely understand,
>> however great we are at landing on the moon. It's rather like an eight year
>> old child (let's say he gets top marks in all his classes) being given his
>> grandpa's pocketwatch as a present, and opening it up to see how many bits
>> he can remove before it goes dead.
>
> I�m flattered to have the benefit of a volunteer spokesperson,
> especially one of Elephant�s stature. But, on second thought, it
> looks like I�ve been set up as a strawman. Still, I think the
> compliment implicit in the former outweighs the exploitation of the
> latter.
>
> ELEPHANT
>> I guess Prisig was saying something similar when he talked about the folly
>> of intellectuals opposing social norms just for the sake of it, as if
>> soceity were something dispensible: the enemy. Instead, what we should do
>> (if we want to call ourselves 'intellectuals') is remember how necessary
>> social order is, and try, with proper modesty about our knowledge, to
>> 'tweak' it so that is cooperates with the existence of the intellectual
>> level as a whole - and not, mind you, with every crackpot intellectual
>> pattern we can come up with (even facism, anti-intellectual as it is, is an
>> intellectual pattern - you don't have to be consistent to be nasty.). I'd
>> favour a similarly careful intellectual attitude to biology, because, if
>> anything, biological order is more necessary to the intellectual life than
>> social order. Erst kommt das Brot, dan kommt die Morale.
>
> A �careful intellectual attitude� towards the lower orders is
> precisely Pirsig�s advice to which I wholeheartedly concur. In fact, I
> think Elephant's description of Pirsig's cautionary view of intellect
> is right on the mark.
>
> Both Elephant and Danila possess a greater concern about the
> prospect of environmental catastrophe than me, but that doesn�t
> mean I subscribe to the idea, �To hell with butterflies, full speed
> ahead.� There are qualified scientists who say the threat of
> disastrous man-made damage to the environment is
> exaggerated. Others say it is worse than anyone imagines. So I
> think Elephant has got it right in saying: �What does the
> precautionary principle tell us to do in any specific case? Well,
> that�s why the UK has such interminable public inquiries. We
> ought to have more.�
>
> Danila's proposal for state-owned property sounds suspiciously
> like Communism. If we've learned anything in the 20th century it's
> that statism, in whatever form, doesn't work.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
>
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