Food and Drugs
There has long been a segment of the Left -- let me call them the Fast Food Nation Left -- that considers American eating habits to be at the root of many societal ills. If we all just ate organically-grown fruits and vegetables, and eschewed burgers and fries and Coca-Cola, we would all be healthier and live longer, they say. In making this argument, they often point toward the evils of genetically engineered and/or chemically enhanced food products. Giving cows bovine growth hormone... it's bad. Pesticide to keep the bugs off the fruit trees... bad. Fertilizer to grow more food... bad. Genetically engineering new and better fruits and vegetables and domestic animals (cows, pigs, sheep, chickens).... it's all bad. Don't put that stuff in your body. Organic, natural foods, that's the way to go. Essentially, in other words, the Fast Food Nation left is the Ludditte left, the left that fears and loathes the discoveries of science and engineering.
On the other hand, there is a segment of the Left that has recently made it an article of faith that, if only we could experiment on stem cells drawn from "discarded" human embryos, we could cure all human diseases, i.e., we would be healthier and live longer. Let's call this the Brave New World Left. Here, science is omnipotent, science only enhances our lives, science is a benign force for good in the universe, endlessly inventing wonder drugs we can put into our bodies to make ourselves, if not immortal, close to immortal. What form would this experimentation on human embryos take? Genetic engineering, obviously. And the outcome? People putting genetically engineered products into their bodies.
My question is... how many of the people in the Fast Food Nation left are also in the Brave New World left? That is, how many people out there are there who buy organic fruits and vegetables because they don't want to put genetically engineered foods into their bodies or their children's bodies, but who simultaneously want to experiment on human embryos to create genetically engineered drugs to put into their bodies and their children's bodies? I think it's a lot.
Just another incoherence on the Left that is baffling to observers who think logically.
On the other hand, there is a segment of the Left that has recently made it an article of faith that, if only we could experiment on stem cells drawn from "discarded" human embryos, we could cure all human diseases, i.e., we would be healthier and live longer. Let's call this the Brave New World Left. Here, science is omnipotent, science only enhances our lives, science is a benign force for good in the universe, endlessly inventing wonder drugs we can put into our bodies to make ourselves, if not immortal, close to immortal. What form would this experimentation on human embryos take? Genetic engineering, obviously. And the outcome? People putting genetically engineered products into their bodies.
My question is... how many of the people in the Fast Food Nation left are also in the Brave New World left? That is, how many people out there are there who buy organic fruits and vegetables because they don't want to put genetically engineered foods into their bodies or their children's bodies, but who simultaneously want to experiment on human embryos to create genetically engineered drugs to put into their bodies and their children's bodies? I think it's a lot.
Just another incoherence on the Left that is baffling to observers who think logically.
posted by PDB at 8:05 AM
1 Comments:
Hasn't your father lectured us on "chemicals"? Everything is "chemicals"! Remember SALT is bad for you. What do they do in the hospital - hook you up to a saline solution! They want to tell you that "it's different", but NCL is NCL!
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