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Stephen Hawking: a brave, authentic progressive


Stephen Hawking's photo of 1968 anti-war rallies in London, along with Vanessa Redgrave and Tariq Ali, is being circulated around the Internet, following the announcement of the death of the great scientist. (For the record, the Rolling Stones wrote the Street Fighting Man song to honor those who participated in those rallies, and especially Tariq Ali).

 

One thing that many ignore (and some others deliberately want to hide), is that Stephen Hawking continued throughout his life to condemn authoritarian regimes that kill indiscriminately innocent people to perpetuate their sovereignty.

His most important intervention in recent years was the condemnation of Israeli political Apartheid and the support he provided to the movement for Israel's artistic, academic and commercial blockade. He had canceled his planned participation in scientific conferences organized by Israeli operators.

This attitude had provoked angry and vulgar reactions in the Israeli social media, but also from Israeli politicians and journalists. With non-stop slogans and provocative comments about his kinetic difficulty, hundreds of Israelis attempted to reduce the importance of his decision.

This man cannot even wipe his a***’, wrote an Internet user while another added that ‘he is still pissing in a bag’ - a comment that immediately gathered dozens Likes on Facebook. In other forums, Israeli users commented that his illness has also degenerated his mind.

At that period, the Israeli lawyer team Shurat HaDin called Hawking to remove Intel's processor through which he could communicate with the world, claiming that this processor was built by an Israeli team.

Hawking had also described the US invasion in Iraq as "war crime," supported movements for nuclear disarmament as well as programs for providing free and universal health care to all people. He even stated that without Britain's public health system he would have died and condemned any attempt of privatization in the health sector.

The famous scientist had openly supported the Labour Party leader in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, and accused Donald Trump that with his environmental policy he will cause irreparable damage to the planet.

Through other statements he stood against Scotland's independence and he believed that Brexit would have a negative impact on the funding of science programs in Britain.

Info from:



We should also mention here that in one of his last discussions on Reddit, Hawking argued that “If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

Professor Hawking was right. The problem is not automation itself, but the system under which is being developed. The obsolete Capitalism is being used - by the elites who have the economic power - as an intermediate tool towards the new Dark Ages of modern Feudalism through which they will take total control of everything. Under such a Dystopian scenery, technology will be used to secure the dominance of the few, instead of improving the lives of billions.



Update:

According to Tariq Ali the man in the photo is not Stephen Hawking. From his Facebook page:


          Sad that Stephen Hawking has left us...he opposed the Vietnam war and the genocidal adventure in Iraq. BUT he is not in the 1968 demo pic. Repeat NOT. An illiterate caption by the National Portrait Gallery has created this myth. Wish it was him but it iosn't so please no more emails on my FB regarding this.....

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