Posted on 10/28/2021 12:18:07 PM PDT by JAG 5000
The Death Of Science
By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpts:
"The scientific method used to govern much of popular American thinking . . .
Is this yet another of the scientific community’s Platonic “noble lies,” as when Fauci assured the public last year that there was no need for masks? He later claimed he had lied so that medical professionals would not run out of needed supplies . . .
“Critical race theory” would preposterously tell us that we need racism to fight racism . . .
Science is dying; superstition disguised as morality is returning. And we’ll all soon become poorer, angrier and more divided." __Victor Davis Hanson
Source: Victor Davis Hanson: The death of science (msn.com)
(Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won,” from Basic Books.
Thoughts?
``
Link?
Dr Fubar practices the science of Fraud
Science! is a new pagan religion. Adherents don’t actually understand science, they just “trust” it. Sacraments include obligatory: taxation, vaccination, and abortion; consequences ignored so long as the genuflection & sacrifice takes place.
I’ll know that science and data and facts are back in style when Fauci is jailed.
‘superstition disguised as morality is returning.’
returning...? it never left, it’s been with mankind since the first abstract thought passed through the first primitive hominid brain capable of it...the names change, but the concept remains; that which we can’t explain, we make an article of faith, and live our lives accordingly...
Are woke political agendas discrediting science and losing public health?
We saw just that in June 2020, when more than 1,200 “health care professionals” signed a petition demanding exemptions from lockdowns and quarantines for Black Lives Matter protesters marching en masse. And they concocted medical excuses such as “vital to the national public health” to insist that violating quarantines was less unhealthy than not pouring into the streets.
Why did presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, warn the American people on the eve of vaccination rollouts that an inoculation under the Trump administration could be unsafe, thereby undermining confidence in vaccines?
Why was the medical community largely silent about such dangerous sabotaging of new vaccines, but months later became vociferous in warning the public that any doubts about the safety of these Operation Warp Speed vaccinations were scientifically misplaced? Was there a medical breakthrough on Jan. 20, 2020, to alter their consensus?
From rewarding wokeness in medical school admissions to the peer reviewing of scientific papers, the anti-scientific mania has polluted scientific endeavors.
“Critical race theory” would preposterously tell us that we need racism to fight racism.
“Critical legal theory” ludicrously claims that laws have no rational basis but simply reflect power inequities.
“Modern monetary theory” defies millennia of evidence and basic logic in stating that governments can simply print money without worrying about balancing expenditures with revenues or inflating the currency to ruination.
Corporations are now asked to substitute a new woke agenda theory — “Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG)” — in lieu of market realities, rules of investment and economic data.
Science is dying; superstition disguised as morality is returning. And we’ll all soon become poorer, angrier and more divided.
https://trib.com/opinion/columns/hanson-the-death-of-science/article_b4a8eb75-4781-5c8e-b49b-a348143824a2.html
If you read THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH you will see how science and medicine became subservient to nazi politics.
Thank you for the link.
VDH is on point as always.
I will say there are millions of unknown scientists, doctors, and engineers pushing forward with actual science.
Though they are losing numbers and power.
During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas--which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could ever have existed, when nothing that they proposed ever really worked--or very little of it did.
But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFO's, or astrology, or some form of mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP, and so forth. And I've concluded that it's not a scientific world.
Most people believe so many wonderful things that I decided to investigate why they did. And what has been referred to as my curiosity for investigation has landed me in a difficulty where I found so much junk that I'm overwhelmed. First I started out by investigating various ideas of mysticism and mystic experiences. I went into isolation tanks and got many hours of hallucinations, so I know something about that. Then I went to Esalen, which is a hotbed of this kind of thought (it's a wonderful place; you should go visit there). Then I became overwhelmed. I didn't realize how MUCH there was.
Also anti-military people are always trumpeting the "military industrial complex" of which President Eisenhower warned us in his farewell speech in 1961. But they always forget this part.
Military-Industrial Complex Speech Transcript
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
Ike nailed it. Now, any "research" performed under a government grant must be assumed to be politicized and cannot be trusted.
Christian author C.S. Lewis “...was not anti-science, but was opposed to ‘Scientism’, which may be defined as the “wrong-headed belief that modern science supplies the only reliable method of knowledge about the world and also … that scientists should be the ones to dictate public policy and even our moral and religious beliefs simply on the basis of their scientific expertise.”
Scientific rigor is still intact and always will be to some degree.
True science is arduous and takes a long time.
What we see today are abuses in the gaps of the longer term science process. When the longer term science truths emerge, the only danger is suppression. This is exactly what happened under Stalin and his top scientist Lysenko.
Lysenko, to save his skin, would determine what outcomes Stalin wanted and then lie his way to said outcomes using twisted science reasoning. This was labeled Lysenkoism.
If outcomes were not in accordance with the demands of Stalin, Lysenko would find scapegoats and have them sent to Gulags.
What we see in the US today is eerily similar, why many say current actions are part of a Marxist takedown of the US.
Thanks for your comments:
Here are some . . .
General Observations:
What’s interesting here, is the fact that the leadership of America
and the social-political influencers in America, and many of
America’s activists and voters are engaged and locked down
in an ongoing bitter political-ideological WAR ~ with the
net results, being partly like Hanson said ~ we will become
angrier and more divided.
At this point in human history, what Thomas Hobbs said
generally applies to most everything ~ and most certainly
it applies to these highly disputed political-social issues.
“Its a war of all against all.”
Question: How many of, say, your personal political ideological
enemies do you think would tell you, “Hey I do NOT have the
science on my side.”
How many of these liberal scoundrels that hawk the notion
that a boy can suddenly declare himself a girl, would tell you
“Hey I do NOT have the science on my side on this issue.”
Generally all evil immoral inhabitants make the claim: “I have the
science on my side.”
“Only the dead have seen an end to war.” (both military war and political war)
__attributed to Plato (and others)
The “I have the science on my side, and you don’t”,
is the standard “argument” put forward by many
Philosophical Pseudo-intellectual Academic Talking Heads.
By the way, if we define the word “science” roughly as truth, then
I note that between 1939 - 1945 The Allies put, at that time, the
world’s most powerful military into Europe, to settle the dispute
over what was “science” with the edge of the bloody sword
The Allied Armies took what the Nazis said was science and
they FORCE CRAMMED it down the throats of the Nazis and
those that went along with the Nazi assertions of what was
science, and the Nazis and the people who supported them and
fought for them were 100% helpless to prevent it ~ and they
were killed by the millions in World War 2.
Humans are a warrior species. A fact supported by some 6000
years of recorded human history and human wars.
When humans are no killing other humans with metal objects
they are attempting to “kill” other humans with words. (Words
are the first weapons draw in warfare.) , ,
And regarding military and political WAR: it ain’t
nowhere close to being over with.
By the way, the Lord Jesus and His people win The War For The World.
Matthew 28:16-20 will be successfully carried out, in the supernatural
power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wins this War For The World through
the following realized worldwide . . . one person at a time:
(1) John 3:3 you must be born again
(2) John 3:16 you must believe in Jesus as your Savior
(3) Gal. 5: 22-23 you must allow the Holly Spirit to produce His fruits
in your life: such as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, love,
faith, hope, etc
Victory! (in the Lord Jesus)
JAG
`
Here is the link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/victor-davis-hanson-the-death-of-science/ar-AAOuNVY
I do not know if the link will “go live” or be a dead link.
If the link does not “go live” you can find it instantly ~ just google “The Death Of Science Victor Davis Hanson” and select the MSN News edition
Best.
JAG
``
`
Excellent points.
Thank you for your contribution.
Best
JAG
``
``
Regarding science as the new pagan religion:
Exactly.
Foe many people it is exactly that.
For many, science is their God.
Best
JAG
``
`
Funny.
Thanks for the laugh.
Best
JAG
``
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.