Anti-humanism of the misanthropes

Frank Furedi at Spiked takes the contemporary doom-mongering misanthropes to task in this essay (via Arts & Letters Daily); that one doesn't agree or necessarily agree with all of his analysis doesn't diminish the force of much of what he writes.

Probably the most important challenge facing humanism today is the growing culture of misanthropy: the powerful mood of disenchantment with humanity and its potential for playing a positive and creative role. And the sources for this sentiment are mostly secular, not religious. ...

Indeed, there is a widespread conviction that the development of human civilisation – particularly the advance of science and technology, and the resulting subordination of the natural order to the demands of human society – is the source of today’s problems of environmental destruction and social disintegration. This perception of civilisation itself giving rise to today’s perils shows what a degraded view some people have of the human species. At times, this sentiment expresses plain old loathing for humans, such as when Earth First campaigners chant: ‘Four legs good! Two legs bad!’ People are regularly portrayed as loathsome parasites who threaten the Earth’s existence. ...

'Progress' of course means different things to the avowed atheist and to the believer; but we seem to be able to agree that the party of the misanthropes can do no good for the cause of the liberal and the humane.