David Watson (3) (1951–)

This collection of essays compiles nearly 20 years of profoundly radical writing on society, the environment, and technology. Most of the contributions are from the newspaper The Fifth Estate, published in Detroit from 1965 to present. Many of the articles are full of references to social theorists, historians, philosophers, and radical thinkers throughout history, and there are many pages of dead-on analysis of current (now historical) events from Bhopal to Exxon-Valdez, from Vietnam to the (first) Gulf War, all very much relevant in 2011.

This is an important and overlooked document in the history of the last 30 years of radical thought, which asks questions few are willing to ask in a sincere, unflinching way. Are the problems of technology more deeply rooted and pervasive than we have previously been willing to consider? In a world system whose trajectory is clearly toward always increasing, always accelerating production, is capitalism more meaningfully understood as a mode of being than a narrowly-defined set of property relations? When will we stop thinking of environmental disasters as aberrations avoidable through regulation and recognize that they are an essential product of the megamachine?

As I write this Japan is probably about to experience a nuclear meltdown. I believe the tragic truth of this book is absolutely essential for our survival.… (mer)