The chilling cloud of ignorance that hangs over the modern world due to the politicization of science.
In the 16th century at the height of the Black Plague in Europe, cats were burned out of scientific ignorance because they were thought responsible for the Plague, which, we later discovered, was spread by the fleas that lived on rats. Since the resources of the day prevented any major reduction on the general population of cats (given that their food supply, the rats, were ubiquitous) the felines eventually contributed to the subsiding of the plague despite the best efforts of humans.
Today our cat-burning tendencies are manifested in the radical "green" movement. The global triumph of capitalism has chased the obsolete Marxists into the new destructive field of extreme environmentalism, while the worship of academic credentials by the increasingly ignorant general public has given a pseudo-scientific cachet to such destructive ideas as prevention of global warming, acid rain, population control and the rejection of genetically-improved foods.
Hopefully, we can avoid destroying out own economy and foolishly limiting our future, and avoid the result of being laughed at or pitied by generations four centuries into our future.
A single courageous leader like George Bush cannot solve our problem-which can be boiled down to the single word "ignorance"-on his own. But for at least the next four years, he is in a position to take those small actions (like turning our collective back on Kyoto) that may (if we are lucky) lead to the necessary public debate that still stands the chance of shedding a damning light on the pseudo-science that threatens our domestic tranquility and economic future.
For this alone, his legacy will massively overshadow that of his immediate predecessor... |
