Biopolitics
I recently came accross an article by Alyssa Ford over at utne.com about possible reconfiguration of the lines between the right and left based upon how people view the transhumanist agenda. Although the article is more than a year old but it gives one reason to pause and think about the shape of things to come. Welcome to the brave new world of biopolitics. Consider the excerpt:
By definition, social conservatives oppose the transhumanists, but the new movement also has many enemies on the new age, environmental, anti-GMO, and anti-biotech left. These progressive opponents have even aligned with right wing factions in opposition to transhumanist goals. In 2002, Jeremy Rifkin and other environmentalists joined with anti-abortion groups to float an anti-cloning petition. Abortion opponents again found themselves working with the left when a group of feminists and civil libertarians began pressuring the Indian government to restrict women’s access to ultrasounds and abortions for fear of female infanticide. The transhumanists, in turn, call these anti-technology liberals “left luddites,” “bioconservatives,” and “technophobes” — a not-so-subtle linguistic clue that the new biopolitical axis has the potential to completely reconfigure traditional politics.
