[csaa-forum] Trashy magpies

[Jason Jacobs]

Dear Terry, 

My last post too. Thanks for replying in such a robust manner - in this 
age of conflict-avoidance I think it's great to have some Tom n' Jerry 
rather than a sanitised politely respectful discussion. 

As for Furedi: I tend to make judgments about intellectual work by reading 
their stuff and making up my mind rather than relying on Google to digest 
it for me. What I was trying to model was the fact that whatever we think 
about the behaviour of individual scholars, it is their ideas that are 
important, not their private lives. By many accounts Foucault and Adorno 
were nasty pieces of work, but that shouldn't have much bearing on our 
judgment of their ideas. Much of what is wrong with some versions of 
'auteur theory' is connected with confusing the two. 

Secondly I agree with Liz Jacka that this is partly a generational thing. 
I see nothing wrong in supporting GM crops which have the potential to 
increase food production and reduce the use of hazardous chemicals. One of 
my chief problems with a lot of what is written in cultural studies is its 
anti-science stance.  Many who object to GM crops have a grasp of genetics 
that seems to come from a couple of viewings of Blade Runner or Gattica 
(I'm fortunate enough to be married to a molecular virologist so I have 
some experience in this respect.). Much of what is written about Furedi on 
the web comes from a very interested group, namely environmentalists who 
seem to thrive on personal slight rather than good science. These are the 
very same people (not all of them of course) who oppose modernisation and 
industrialisation in  the poorest countries, effectively condemning two 
thirds of the planet to a life which, at the last count, has to sustain 
itself on less than $2US a day. 

But Furedi hardly needs my defence - read an interview with him at :

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA6F5.htm



I look forward to the drink too Terry and hope we can continue this in an 
equally robust fashion then,
cheers
Jason

Dr Jason Jacobs
Senior Lecturer
School of Arts, Media and Culture
Griffith University
Nathan Campus
Queensland 4111
Australia
Phone: (07) 3875 5164
Fax: (07) 3875 7730
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