A very interesting article from one of the founders of a new organization based in London, The Manifesto Club, whose website http://www.manifestoclub.com/ouraimsandgoals.htm says:
“The Manifesto Club was initiated in January 2006 by a group of individuals based in London, who were concerned about the way contemporary culture restrains and stifles people's aspirations and initiative. We thought that there were many people out there who didn't really fit into left and right, but shared basic assumptions about the need to develop human beings' creativity and knowledge.”
An excerpt.
Meet the Malthusians manipulating the fear of terror
From climate change doom-mongers to population alarmists, every kind of fear entrepreneur is piggy-backing on the ‘war on terrorism’.
By Frank Furedi: Tuesday June 27, 2006
The world economy may be a bit unsettled, but the global market in fear is prospering. This month, Lloyd’s of London warned that climate change could destroy the insurance industry. It counselled insurers to increase prices in order to avoid being ‘swept away’ by a sea of claims. ‘If we don’t take action now to understand the changing nature of our planet, we will face extinction’, declared Lloyd’s director Rolf Tolle (1).
The insurance industry seems almost addicted to the idea that, in the future, it could become helpless in the face of global calamity. After 9/11 the focus was on terrorism. Then, Rodger Lawson, president of the Alliance of American Insurers, argued that ‘terrorism is an uninsurable act’ (2). To say that something is ‘uninsurable’ is to believe that it is beyond human management or control. The notion that society is incapable of managing certain risks through insurance points to a powerful sense of defeatism about the dangers ahead. And in this debate about our scary future, terrorism is only one of many terrible threats we apparently face. ‘Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of’, said the famous physicist Stephen Hawking recently (3).
It is now common to hear people argue that the threat of terrorism is less worrying than other, more menacing dangers of the future. Earlier this year a report titled Global Risks 2006, published by the World Economic Forum, revealed that bird flu is the global threat that most concerns business leaders. The report claimed that the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu could ‘disrupt our global society and economy in an unprecedented way’ (4). Last year, a report issued by the UK Cabinet Office rated avian flu as among the greatest threats facing the country, posing as big a danger to Britain as terrorism does (5).
