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Civilisation
is unmasking its government-approved vandalism, not just in
the protected distant spheres, from the Arctic region to the
rain forest, and from the depth of the ocean to the depth of
space -- oh no, these days even the sphere of the mind and
intellectual debate is under threat: "Political Correctness"
is granting lies normalicy!
Plea
for a New
Quality
of Being
Human
by
Wolfgang Fischer
(
spanisch
) (german)
( pdf.format
)
We
imagine ourselves to be enlightened. The connection between
procreation and the emergence of new life has been common
knowledge for quite some time now. We also know, for
instance, that as a matter of course frogs beget frogs and
birds beget birds. From the fertilised egg of a dinosaur we
can expect little dinosaurs to emerge, whilst from the
fertilised egg of a chimpanzee a young chimp will come into
being.
There
can be no doubt about this kind of connection, or rather: up
until now there was no doubt about it. For in June of the
year 2001 no less a person than the President of the
Max-Planck Society made the statement that he did not
consider a fertilised human egg to be human!
Now
this outstanding representative of the scientific
establishment certainly is not making such a statement in
ignorance. He surely knows that to this day nothing other
than a human has ever grown from a fertilised human egg
cell. Yet despite knowing this he maintains that this egg
cell is not a human being. Why is he doing that? He wants to
ease the conscience of those doing research in the field of
gene technology whilst confusing its critics. He wants to
make others believe that cannibalism isn't cannibalism as
long as it brings an advantage (after all, where is the
difference between eating members of one's own species and
utilising their cells in some other way?). He wants to make
others believe that the fertilised human egg cell, i.e. the
combination of egg cell and sperm, becomes human only at a
later time. So what is it until then? Vegetable? Or neutral
- neo-liberal perhaps?
This
is pure sophistry, motivated by irresponsible greed for
money and omnipotence. For what else besides the egg cell of
the mother and the sperm of the father, should constitute
the human child? A divine breath about two weeks after
fertilisation? Poor science! Such a pronouncement from one
of your champions in this 21st century! Why, oh why are you
thus throwing yourself uncritically into Mammon's jaws?
Stop!
I can hear a voice calling. After all, this isn't about
cannibalism but about curing life in the future. - Yet is
this really true?
Recently,
concerning the issue of genetic engineering the Churches
announced: A cure not at any price! But who can say that
genetic engineering will bring any cure or benefit at all?
Didn't nuclear technology also once promise to solve all
energy problems for all time?
It
really seems we are regressing back to the times of
Babylonian Confusion. Are we humans or aren't we (as yet)?
The next question will be: ethics or bio-ethics! Just as if
there were a different ethics outside the sphere of life -
in other words, two ethics? And just like, besides the wars
of the 'rogue nations', there are supposed to be also just
and humane wars? Here the lawless rogue nations and there
the self-righteous alliances of Capital!
Here
the supremacy of the market and the rejection of socially
needed subsidies, and there tax concessions for all the
corporations who are exploiting our labour and the
environment whilst increasing their profits to astronomical
heights! This is the ethics of power and money that's
presently responsible for the pollution and desertification
of the globe.
Today
this ethics is even being sanctified by the very nation who
is leading the world in the reckless consumption of
resources (1) - and seems unwilling to listen to reason -
and from there, this ethics is being exported with
repressive means throughout the world! After the failure of
MAI, the Multilateral Agreement about Investment, the very
same propositions are being propagated unilaterally via WTO
regulations, against the resistance of the populations. A
new bogy is being created by indiscriminately criminalizing
all those who demonstrate against the destruction of our
basic necessities and social safety measures. Cause and
effect are being confused by declaring those who speak out
against the threats to be a threat themselves. The media,
subservient to the system, facilitate the spiralling of
violence by concentrating on the reporting of acts of
violence rather than positions of dissent. In the long run
the situation is rendered totally confused due to the
attempt to blame certain groups of demonstrators for
vandalism organised by government forces, as happened in
Genoa recently (2).
In
general, the lack of a clear orientation is evidenced also
by the fact that murderers are in one place supported and
celebrated as freedom fighters and elsewhere persecuted as
rebels. "To stabilize the Balkan region" Yugoslavia was
asked to admit NATO troops into its own sovereign territory
and because of its refusal subjected to "humane" aerial
warfare, which only aggravated the existing misery of the
population whilst delaying the peace process. At the same
time the war in the Middle East has been left to terrorise
the local population for decades. In this case Israel's
consistent refusal to admit foreign observers is willingly
accepted by Washington's preachers of morality. Throughout
the globe this kind of double standard is disproving the
pretended sincerity of the superpower who, brandishing the
name of Almighty God, is even claiming to be engaged in a
fight against evil.
In
the sphere of domestic politics, too, the rationalising
argumentation concerning problematic issues like nuclear
power, gene technology, food, air, water, military
deployment etc. is causing unending confusion. The media's
strategy of confusing the public through their use of
language is exemplified by the headline: "German Economy
under Threat of Stagnation!" (Süddeutsche Zeitung of 11
/7/ 2001) By contrast, a sports writer would never dream of
talking about stagnation or threat of collapse in the case
of an athlete who, unable to increase his speed any further,
was running at the same speed or even somewhat slower than
previously. The sentence reads as though all wheels,
chimneys and finance streams were threatened by immediate
stoppage. Whether intentionally or not, the reader is being
made to feel insecure and afraid. He loses his critical
rebelliousness and becomes obedient. This very same tendency
is further illustrated by another headline from the same
day; "Germans expected to relinquish Wages and Annual Leave"
(Die Welt).
A
further instrument for creating confusion is the
interpreting of statistics to the benefit of those in power.
Pointing
out a lack of scientific proof, existing causal connections
are denied until it is too late anyhow to do anything about
the issue in question, and then what happens was "as far as
humanly possible to say, in all probability" not
preventable. So there's no change.
The
discrepancy between claims made and actual reality will
become evident if we open up an extensive debate concerning
the issue of guaranteed basic rights, e.g., the right of
non-injury (Article 2,2 of the German constitution). The
drinking water, for example, has in many regions by now
become undrinkable not just as such, but because its
protection through political initiatives remains subordinate
to the greed of the polluters (in this case, the
agrochemical giants). And for the same reason we find the
same constellation everywhere: industrially 'refined' food
is becoming potentially poisonous, the air we breathe is
enriched with incalculable pollutants, all-pervasive
radiation from radioactive and electromagnetic sources keeps
increasing, the vital balance of the atmosphere is being
disturbed, diseases and health disturbances induced by
multifactors are becoming uncontrollable.
A
far-reaching debate about values is essential, in order to
demonstrate that the protection of life and nature takes
precedence over all other interests. It is unacceptable that
our Constitution continues to be distorted through laws that
are contradictory to its spirit. The Federal Constitutional
Court should unequivocally oppose any tendency in this
direction. Otherwise we might as well throw the German
Constitution out the window and resign ourselves to its
daily redefining by those who swore "to increase benefit and
minimise harm" - an oath which has prevented neither the
scaling back of past social gains nor the destruction of the
ecological balance: i.e. by the politicians in league with
their powerful allies from the multinational corporations
who are calling the shots. The politicians' distance from
the actual political necessities and the extent of their
alienation from the electorate may be measured by the width
of the 'security zones' allotted to them for protection at
their globalisation meetings.
For
every day provides new proof that the 'ordinary citizen' is
no longer in charge of the situation. Just take the issue
concerning the PDS (the party formed by the ex-Communists in
former East Germany). This political party is being treated
by the others as though it represented the scum of the
earth. They completely fail to notice that, having gained
seats in democratic elections, it is representative of a
significant percentage of our fellow citizens. Are all of
these, too, then the 'scum of the earth'? If so, then the
politicians from the established parties who think so ought
to say it openly - although that would definitely not be the
way to practice confrontation in a democracy. Positions that
run counter to established opinion cannot just be eradicated
with Cold War methods like isolating, denouncing or
criminalizing one's opponents.
Any
party or politician upholding the principles of the
Constitution ought to be able on this basis to move freely,
so as to be noticed in the political debate and gain public
support through programmes upholding those principles. That
way the informed citizen who according to Article 20 of the
Constitution is manifesting his sovereignty through
exercising his right to vote, might at last - after 52
years' existence of the Constitution - become a political
reality!
Irrespective
of whether or not we are willing to acknowledge the many
problems currently threatening us: solutions to them will
only be found in open, unprejudiced debate inspired by
concern about the public welfare on a global scale. In the
current globalisation policy of the WTO the virtual sphere
of stock market trends or the artificially created laws
governing trade are considered of equal importance to the
laws of nature - if not even taking precedence over the
actual needs of the environment or society: - proof of a
far-reaching, mortally dangerous loss of a sense of reality,
if ever such were needed! If democracy is to have any
future, all organisations representing the people will need
to seriously examine all the goals and aspirations of WTO
and IMF, who so far lack any democratic legitimation. Once
we begin to question their strategies (3) it will be seen
clearly that they are dictated solely by the interests of
capital and their destructive effects on society and nature
alike will become evident.
The
emergence of the non-human as well as the continuing
destruction of life can be prevented only if we begin to
make the well-being of all people and of nature with its
diverse interdependent balances the yardstick of our
actions. A superior quality of being human will quite
naturally be achieved by a different form of globalisation -
one where our priorities are turned around so that the life
of our globe again takes precedence over the products of
humans such as society, the market and the economy.
-
- - - - - - - -
(1)
The US comprise 5% of the global population and are
consuming 25% of global energy.
(2) The tactical reasons for such a strategy, well proven in
totalitarian states, are first of all, to influence public
opinion against the demonstrators and their cause, and
secondly, to split the front of the demonstrators (divide et
impera!). In the end, a situation aggravated in this way
will also provide a useful argument for militarising the
police force even further whilst reducing democratic rights,
etc. etc.
(3) The Scottish parliament will be the first in the world
to debate the General Agreement on Trade and Services
(GATS)
-
Belen Balanya, Ann Doherty, Olivier Hoedeman, Adam Ma' anit
& Erik Wesselius, EUROPE INC: Regional & Global
Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power. London,
Pluto Press, 2000
deutsch: "Konzern Europa - Die unkontrollierte Macht der
Unternehmen", 392 Seiten, Broschur, sFr/DM 36.-; öS
263.- (ab 2002: 18 Euro), ISBN: 3-85869-216-6, Rotpunkt
Verlag
- Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Nick Faraclas und Claudia von
Werlhof (Hg), There is an Alternative. Subsistence and
worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization, London,
zed press, 2001
- Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalisation of Poverty.
Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World
Network, Penang, Malaysia 1997
- Michel Chossudovsky, Disarming the New World Order
[http://www.transnational.org//meet/seattle.html]
- Saral Sarkar, Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism? A
critical analysis of humanity's fundamental choices, Zed
Books, London 1999
more:
see
table of contents
- titels in one pdf.file:
download 310 kb, 43 pages
Emanzipation
Humanum,
version 12. 2001, translation form german to english by
Rainer
Taëni.
Criticism, suggestions as to form and content, dialogue,
translation into other languages are all
desired
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/human.html
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