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And another thing. I am utterly fed up with references to the
'ignorant public'. Do children fail or is it the education system
(and the social circumstances) that we provide that fails them?
And even if (and it is an utterly riduculous argument) our
childrens' inability to handle science were their fault, this does
not this give the scientific community the right to patronise or,
more importantly, give Monsanto the right to experiment on us.
The scientific community has to find ways to communicate
complex information in a way that gives people the opportunity to
understand and exercise decisions. At present the food industry
even refuses to label food as GM! The scientific community should
stop blaming the vicitm!
In the same way that the education system fails our children, the
social relations of capital act against adults' personal growth,
community involvement and social engagement.
Most people do jobs that are quite destructive - jobs that are
boring and monotonous and well below their intellectual capacity.
In addition, most working lives are organised so as to prevent people
from exercising any control/decision making in the workplace.
Outside work, we are fed a diet of trivia by media empires over
which we have no control. Politically, democracy involves people
in a once every five years process that takes about ten minutes
- and we can only vote for another lot who are not much different
from the previous bunch. It is small wonder that shopping is a
favourite activity - it is the only opportunity that most people have
to exercise any control-decision making.
And you cannot blame people for being passive and not taking
the opportunites available. If you put people into types of
conditions that continully act against involvement then what do you
expect? I think it is amazing that, despite the prevailing socio
economic-political conditions, so many people are concerned about
things which they have little realistic chance of changing.
John James
Dr MJ Pearson
Department of Chemical Pathology & Immunology
Old Medical School
Leeds General Infirmary (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust)
LEEDS LS1 3EX
Tel 0113 392 3945
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