From: jeff davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun May 05 2002 - 04:17:05 MDT
Extropes,
Here's a link to Fukuyama's comments before the
Subcommittee on Health, June 20, 2001, in support of
legislation to ban cloning in the US.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/107/hearings/06202001Hearing291/Fukuyama457.htm
My take on Fukuyama is that he is an ambitious,
politically savvy, academic careerist. He hitches his
wagon to the sexiest of current concerns, determines
the prevailing social and political view, adopts a
position in support of that view, and then, by virtue
of his considerable reputation, installs himself as a
leading figure in the public policy discussion.
I would guess that what seems a striking lack of
imagination on his part, simply reflects his
deliberate choice of a position in the dead center of
the political mainstream. He clearly--or so it seems
to me--has the intelligence to formulate a more
optimistic view of the role of technology in the
future, but that would be a less advantageous career
move, shunting him into the geeky fringe and away from
the political mainstream.
Take a look at his statement to congress. In the
first of two reasons he gives for opposing cloning, he
states:
(1)"...human reproductive cloning, if and when it
becomes possible, will constitute a highly unnatural
form of reproduction, one that interferes with the
normal process of conception,..." and,..."...I believe
that human nature is a valid standard for establishing
human rights."
These do not seem to me reasons derived from rational
analysis, but rather political statements that pander
to a broad and unsophisticated political center.
He then says, "It is therefore extremely important
that Congress act legislatively at this point
****to establish the principle that our democratic
political community is sovereign and has the power to
control the pace and scope of such technological
developments."****
Now maybe it's just that I'm a true-believer
technophile, and a paranoid anti-government wacko with
underlying "problems with authority", but this feels
to me like Fukuyama giving a Lewinsky to the entire US
Congress, saying in effect, "Time to show those
pencil-necked techno-geeks that you are the big dog."
In the next paragraph he continues the stroking by
playing the congress off against the judiciary,
recommending that they act before the courts do.
Anyway, feels to me like Fukuyama is working his way
to the head of the public policy analysts' trough. He
and Leon Kass should get along nicely.
Best, Jeff Davis
"You are what you think."
Jeff Davis
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