The following is from a feature article by Hiroshi Furuta and Yutaka Asaka in WiLL, a monthly magazine now on sale, titled "Slashing 'Das Kapital' of the Anthropocene! The following is a unique feature of a conversation between Hiroshi Furuta and Yutaka Asaka in the monthly magazine WiLL.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people all over the world.
Marx's "Mutant Virus
Furuta
About 30 years ago, deforestation became a big deal.
I was at Shimonoseki City University at the time, and it was a hangout for Marxist economists from Kyushu University (laughs).
They didn't use disposable chopsticks; they used to leave their own chopsticks at their favorite bars.
Asaka
It's like bottle keeping (laughs).
Furuta
At the time, I wondered what they were doing, but I guess it was to protect the forest.
Asaka
But that doesn't make any sense (laughs).
Japanese disposable chopsticks are made from scraps, leftovers, and thinned wood from cutting logs, so they have nothing to do with deforestation.
It is except for those made in China (laughs).
Furuta
Oh, really? Now the mystery of the "My Chopsticks Boom" has been solved (laughs).
Asaka
I wonder if any of these "scare stories" have ever been true.
There was also a story about a "feminized earth" caused by environmental hormones.
Furuta
Yes, there was (laughs).
Asaka
When boiling water is poured into a cup of noodles, the ingredients dissolve.
When this is released as sewage, it acts as a female hormone and affects the ecosystem. As a result, the males disappear. (laughs)
It was disproved entirely, but I'm sure there are still many people who believe in it.
Also, many people believe that margarine, which is high in trans-fatty acids, is "eating plastic," but nowadays, margarine contains less trans-fatty acids than butter.
I also miss Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which wrote about the dangers of pesticides, and Sawako Ariyoshi's "Compound Pollution," which was serialized in the Asahi Shimbun.
If such a story is true, it is strange that human beings are not in danger of extinction.
Furuta
There was also Hirofumi Uzawa's "The Social Cost of the Automobile.
He wrote that the spread of automobiles is evil and spread like "cancer cells."
Asaka
When cell phones first came out, it said that using a cell phone could cause brain tumors.
Right-handed people use their right ear to make phone calls to develop brain tumors on the right side of their brain.
When I was a lefty, I was convinced that I knew what I was talking about when I found such stories.
Even if the cell phone companies denied it, I thought they were lying because they wanted to sell cell phones, and I thought I was standing on the side of justice.
The people who get hooked on "The Anthropocene" also have the "doctrine" that "capitalism is evil" before anything else, so I think they read the book and are convinced that "I knew it.
Marx proves the legitimacy of such a doctrine in a cool way.
Furuta
"Das Kapital of the Anthropocene" is a remake of "scare stories."
It is a "mutated virus" of Marx.
This article continues.
