Published: July 7th, 2011 at 11:11 am ET
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INTERVIEW/ Ulrich Beck: System of organized irresponsibility behind the Fukushima crisis, Asahi, July 7, 2011:
We are apparently living under tremendous risks. The accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant triggered by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami drove home to us this eerie fact. How long and to what extent will the damage spread? And what is its true nature?
The Asahi Shimbun interviewed German sociologist Ulrich Beck [Professor at Munich University who
also teaches at the London School of Economics and Harvard University] in search of answers. [...][Beck:] This catastrophe is, on the one hand, man-made, but on the other hand, geographically, socially and in the time dimension, unlimited. It doesn’t have a limit.
The normal accident, as we have it in mind like a car accident, or maybe even a greater accident, even if thousands of people die, is limited to a specific place, to a specific time, to a specific social group.
But the catastrophe–the consequences of a nuclear catastrophe–is unlimited in space, time and the social dimension. It’s the new kind of risk. [...]
Published: July 7th, 2011 at 11:11 am ET
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great - "enviro-fa scist ...
if we get thru this thing, someone...
sending...
So scary no one has a comment…
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Nuclear News Now. Please visit & share http://realitycheck.no-ip.info/nnn.html
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I suppose some would say his words are profound. Personally I’d expect more from someone educated to his level, but at least he’s going in the right direction.
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You´re not alone with youf opinion:
It is not in th englich Wikipdia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Beck but it is in the german one:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Beck#Kritik
Short transaltion of the general criticism:
- Nothimg new, but only new labels
- partly fashionable, partly personal – prejudices
- it´s rather political philosophy as strong, empirically contentful sociology.
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“Its the new kind of risk”. WTF? I guess if you mean 66 years of the nuke monster is NEW. OK, everyone who did not see this coming,raise your hands.
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.”". .”",
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trying again..
.”". .”",
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Is it some sort of code? I love a puzzle….
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It’s the Tepco Fuku manual
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It’s supposed to be a hand doing the peace sign. I think WP took out the extra spaces, so it’s really narrow. But it’s kinda there.. Cossack said, “raise your hands.”
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This was a particularly insightful sentence as to man’s lack of ability to “control” these monsters we have created and how limited we are when they go nuts.
“It’s like people are on board an airplane for which there is no landing strip, or they are actually using the brake of a bicycle in an airplane.”
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I like this:”We have a system of organized irresponsibility: Nobody really is responsible for those consequences. We have a system of organized irresponsibility, and this system has to be changed.”
Period.
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Word. The modern corporation is a greedy mob that has no regard for the future. The entire corporate concept needs to be eliminated. It may already be too late.
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This is like the Black Plague or the Spanish Flu.
It’s going to go on and on, with no ability for the
system to stop it.
At least even with the most devastating floods or earthquakes, the evacuation is clear and the crisis stops soon.
Here, like the plague, this keeps rolling.
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We need to get more back to local:
- local food
- local energy
- local production
- local consumption
- local jobs
http://www.transitionnetwork.org
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There needs to be a political will for change, Green party is big in Germany and the politicians had no choice but to listen to the people. As other comments in other threads testify no one wants to hear about fukushima in Canada and USA. Half the people don’t even vote and apathy runs rampant in our society. The big issue is the economy. All us enenews people are a tiny minority who can’t even discuss fukushima among our friends and relatives. (According to posts)
As long as the majority of voters are ignoring the nuclear issue it remains a non-issue and its business as usual for the corporate-government white collar gansters. I’m not sure how to figuratively kick societies butt into action. Any suggestions?
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Mark, I don’t know about others, but I find that my relatives do not believe they have much to worry about unless and until the main-stream-media puts it on the evening “news.”
There is a total blackout of news on Fort Calhoun and the only place I find much news about Fukushima is on enenews.
Until the mass media becomes more responsible (they probably never will) most Americans will not realize the truth until it is too late. They think I’m exaggerating. So sad.
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Hey Mark. there is a real difference between us and europe, I think mainly because of the unrelenting assault via media, republicons, corrupt sold out dems, budget cuts, fascists getting onto courts, into high places… so we have a lot to fight against. I just did a call with a group about this and one idea that came up was for people to individually or in groups brainstorm every day until you come up with some new ideas that might really work, then run with them. So brainstorm , ie write or talk out loud for at least 15 min a day, on how to get out power back and get people aware of the truth… one thing I think has to change is that we have to have paper ballots all the way through to the final vote count at the end of the day, ie no more midnight shenanigans (vote switching at the last hour). Until we do that the elections in this country are rigged. see blackboxvoting.org for more on this.
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Brydie, good idea I will meditate on it until a lot of people understand what is happening nothing will change.
Canada still has a all paper vote. We just had a federal election and Stephan Harper ran a very controlled campaign. Media by invitation only, College speech audience screened and this was reported by the media. Basically used various shenanigans to muffle free speech. Scary to me but friends of mine voted for him as he is perceived as having a good hand on the economy. Canada’s political system is different to USA but what we share (and to a certain extent Europe) is this mass media entertainment industry I call it the electronic opiate machine. People go to work pay there bills and entertain themselves in front of the TV/Blueray/ Internet/social media. People talk about sports what happened on survivor, etc. etc. People looking inward? Think everyone under some magic spell. Simplest way I can describe it. Everybody should think about it. Take Care
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Oh yeah, USA has the least amount of vacation time and works more hours per week then Europe so they have more leisure time and can afford to actually spend time on social/political issues. Americans (and Canadians) simply don’t have the free time given to Europeans. Very under-rated issue.
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My son and I were just talking about this this morning. I told him I think it’s because young people (under 40) live “in the moment.” Older people tend to reflect more on the meaning of things.
Again, think how beneficial it would be if reporters just did a good job of reporting on real news as opposed to trivia.
I refuse to watch the msm evening news anymore. I will listen to the summary at the beginning, but if they are ignoring the real problems we face, I turn it off. If enough people did that, they might get the message.
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Wow… As a wordsmith myself I bow to the professor. He is welcome at my cocktail party. I liked his part about you can’t measure the deaths ad some of the people who will die are not yet born. Great thinker and he expresses the situation well. We knew it was world-shattering and he confirms it. Fukushima is beyond any disaster mankind has experienced and it could well be the ELE (Extinction Level Event).
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He just said what most of us feel and know anyways, not new news for us at enenews. Just too bad more reporters are following Will and Kate tour then Fukushima let alone the good professor. Luckily that makes it easier for me to buy what I want. No line-ups yet
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