tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post5807122178482826348..comments2024-02-11T19:28:27.997+11:00Comments on Personal Reflections: Saturday Morning Musings - why environmentalists (and other enthusiasts) are sometimes bad for the planetJim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-55597254639127570792008-11-17T06:53:00.000+11:002008-11-17T06:53:00.000+11:00Ramana, as you might expect, I disagree with you a...Ramana, as you might expect, I disagree with you at a number of levels. However, I think that I will hold my response to a full post. Some of the issues are quite complicated, and I need space if I am to do the arguments justice.Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-66331704644195849292008-11-16T09:31:00.000+11:002008-11-16T09:31:00.000+11:00Niar, your comment made me realise how little I kn...Niar, your comment made me realise how little I know of some forms of thinking - like postmodernism in international relations! I will have to do some reading; so far I have just browsed http://www.e-ir.info/?p=301. Will respond further when I know more.Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-91620141890223826642008-11-16T02:50:00.000+11:002008-11-16T02:50:00.000+11:00Jim, perhaps I am being contrarian here. Broadly ...Jim, perhaps I am being contrarian here. Broadly speaking, there are two types of people who live on this planet. Informed people and uninformed people. Sadly, the majority are in the latter category. Out of the latter, the majority are also on a survival trip. No amount of our pontificating is likely to have any effect on them as they will do things to keep body and soul together such as, cut trees, clear forests, kill animals, whatever. All these have disastrous effects on the total.<BR/><BR/>We need to address a delivery system of primary needs to these people. In doing these, the informed group, has to come up with action plans. Take the Koyoto protocol, every one is talking about it, including the Australians now, but who is doing what to implement?<BR/><BR/>My own take is that human beings in total are bad for the planet. If by some miracle, we can all be wiped out, the earth will rejuvenate itself in about three hundred years time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-69940934843978262212008-11-15T22:04:00.000+11:002008-11-15T22:04:00.000+11:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.nickysamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17198070237013868061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-27466414192903738742008-11-15T11:44:00.000+11:002008-11-15T11:44:00.000+11:00It's really interesting posting Jim,about postmode...It's really interesting posting Jim,<BR/>about postmodern, my study have taught me about it. but my knowledge about it is not too broad. like contructivist, or critical theory, postmodern is a new point a view in the international relations world which oppose neorealist, and another positive group. <BR/>postmodern scholar try to make the world aware about their ' conceptual trapper'. It means that the most important of conceptual trapper is an mind and argue that modernity can cause a progress and better life for everything. But the postmodern expert throw it away by their belief that there is an objective knowledge above social phenomena. <BR/>the postmodern expert refusing the idea about the truth, and objective truth mind. But They believe that there 's a knowledge that can increase and expand. So it can increase the ability of human not only about their nature, and social life but also international systemNiarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13183770369754409460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-63027071386659950522008-11-15T11:29:00.000+11:002008-11-15T11:29:00.000+11:00What an interesting comment, Neil. I agree that we...What an interesting comment, Neil. I agree that we all hold contradictory views - I think humans have. <BR/><BR/>But if your are correct that in Pomo or post Pomo (!) we have replaced our sense of certainty, if we have lost our belief in progress as an example, yet retain our belief in ansolutes, doesn't this make us all a bit of a mess?<BR/><BR/>On China, that's why you get told not to eat the veggies!Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-90630392587001146782008-11-15T11:13:00.000+11:002008-11-15T11:13:00.000+11:00I second the motion that this is an interesting po...I second the motion that this is an interesting post. <BR/><BR/>A couple of things:<BR/><BR/>1. You say: " I am told that in western countries at least we have just been through, maybe are still in, what is called a post-modern age. I have never been sure that I properly understand just what post-modernism is. As best I can work out, it seems to imply that the certainties in values, morals and beliefs that somehow marked the past have been replaced by a world in which everything is relative.<BR/><BR/>"I have always struggled with this one because it did not seem to fit with the facts. We actually live in a world that is becoming increasingly puritan, increasingly willing to assert that certain things are absolute."<BR/><BR/>I am not sure I know what Pomo is exactly either, but there is a sense in which the label fits: the grand ideas like Marxism or rampant Free Market Capitalism or traditional and confident religion or Progress are exposed as more than a bit unreliable. Also, very many of us seem to hold contradictory views about many issues without compunction, believing (as I do) that this reflects the way things actually are.<BR/><BR/>Many people can't stand this and crave certainty. Hence to other side of your equation, but this nostalgia (or worse sometimes) is itself part of the post-modern condition. I don't imagine the Victorians were as strident, as they were confident.<BR/><BR/>Mind you, exactly how this is different from Modernism I am never quite sure -- except someone I read once remarked that Modernists saw all this uncertainty and tended to hate it or lament it (T S Eliot comes to mind) while Post-medernists tend to revel in it.<BR/><BR/>What a long comment.<BR/><BR/>2. The Chinese have been putting human waste to agricultural use for ages...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-79577035229359489032008-11-15T11:07:00.000+11:002008-11-15T11:07:00.000+11:00Thanks, Lexcen. I obviously agree about the crushi...Thanks, Lexcen. I obviously agree about the crushing effect.Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-24931332444287624012008-11-15T10:05:00.000+11:002008-11-15T10:05:00.000+11:00Very interesting post Jim. I was extremely pleased...Very interesting post Jim. I was extremely pleased to see the graph on increasing government legislation. This has been one of my biggest gripes. We as citizens are being crushed by more laws than we can cope with.Lexcenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17856993035719777231noreply@blogger.com