Bad ideas

Fred Halliday issues a warning for 2007, in the shape of the 'the world's twelve worst ideas'. Two of his candidates:

'In the modern world, we do not need utopias' and 'The world is divided into incomparable moral blocs, or civilisations'.

To which he says:

Dreaming, the aspiration to a better world and the imagination thereof, is a necessary part of the human condition.
.....
[A] set of common values is... shared across the world: from democracy and human rights to the defence of national sovereignty and belief in the benefits of economic development.

The twelve ideas and Fred's responses are here. (Via Butterflies and Wheels.)