No time for a lengthy post this morning so I'm resorting to that lazy bloggers ruse, the 'open thread'. Courtesy of Open Democracy a short piece by Fred Halliday on what he considers the worst 12 ideas in the world today:
I don't know much about Fred but I can tell from this list he and I would have issues. I can think of many worse ideas and a few reasons why his list is nonsense - for example:
12: Human behaviour can be predicted
11: The world is speeding up
10: We have no need for history
9: We live in a "post-feminist" epoch
8: Markets are a "natural" phenomenon which allow for the efficient allocation of resources and preferences
7: Religion should again be allowed, when not encouraged, to play a role in political and social life
6: In the modern world, we do not need utopias
5: We should welcome the spread of English as a world language
4: The world is divided into incomparable moral blocs, or civilisations
3: Diasporas have a legitimate role to play in national and international
politics
2: The only thing "they" understand is force
1: The world's population problems, and the spread of Aids, can be solved without the use of condoms
I don't know much about Fred but I can tell from this list he and I would have issues. I can think of many worse ideas and a few reasons why his list is nonsense - for example:
- 8 is a very unsubtle dig at Capitalism - few capitalists claim it's always efficient, just that it's the 'least worst' option.
- 7 is the usual aggressive secularism we've seen far too much of lately.
- 6 could be construed as a defence of ideological puritanism and sits rather oddly with 7.
- 4 seems less like an idea than a straightforward observation to me.
- 3 feels like an underhand dig at Israel and
- 1... really Fred - that's the worst idea in the world today...?
However, as I said I don't have the time for more so over to you....
3 Comments:
7 maybe. Religion, as in theology but Christian values - no, they should be put back into government.
Personally I think he is right about 4 I don't think that's true and the idea that it is true is a real problem.
I do think 5 is a very bad idea, yes. To me the worst idea in the world is that you can use your religion as an excuse for anything you like.
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