It is all well and good for everyone to set aside time to reflect on the death of George Floyd and determine what we can do to ensure that such occurrences continue to become increasingly rare.
So, I have no problem when two leading scientific publications -- Science and Nature -- devote one day of tweeting to focus on the tragedy.
I do have a problem when such publications allow themselves to be bullied and hijacked by individuals and groups demanding that publications scrap the scientific method because, they claim, it reinforces something called white privilege and systemic racism.
We have seen what subverting and enslaving science to ideologically and racially warped ideologies produces: Repression, slavery and eugenics. That triad of tools has been used by totalitarian regimes and unhinged movements throughout history. When the institutions and cultural constructs that defend freedom of thought, expression and action cower or cave to such forces, human dignity is debased at the very least. At the worst, it leads to censure and coercion as both ends and means.
Science and Nature may have opened the door to a disaster created by forces that are racist and anti-Semitic, forces that crave control without any justification except the fervent belief that they – not you or me – should be in charge. My guess is that other publications will engage in online virtual signaling and more to demonstrate how woke and guilty they really are.
Increasingly I am reminded of something Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician and defender of science said in his PBS series entitled, The Ascent of Man. Here is a link to the video.
“There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit. The assertion of dogma closes the mind and turns a nation, a civilization into a regiment of ghosts — obedient ghosts, or tortured ghosts.
It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That’s false — tragically false.
Look for yourself.
This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas — it was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance.”
When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.”
So, I have no problem when two leading scientific publications -- Science and Nature -- devote one day of tweeting to focus on the tragedy.
I do have a problem when such publications allow themselves to be bullied and hijacked by individuals and groups demanding that publications scrap the scientific method because, they claim, it reinforces something called white privilege and systemic racism.
We have seen what subverting and enslaving science to ideologically and racially warped ideologies produces: Repression, slavery and eugenics. That triad of tools has been used by totalitarian regimes and unhinged movements throughout history. When the institutions and cultural constructs that defend freedom of thought, expression and action cower or cave to such forces, human dignity is debased at the very least. At the worst, it leads to censure and coercion as both ends and means.
Science and Nature may have opened the door to a disaster created by forces that are racist and anti-Semitic, forces that crave control without any justification except the fervent belief that they – not you or me – should be in charge. My guess is that other publications will engage in online virtual signaling and more to demonstrate how woke and guilty they really are.
Increasingly I am reminded of something Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician and defender of science said in his PBS series entitled, The Ascent of Man. Here is a link to the video.
“There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit. The assertion of dogma closes the mind and turns a nation, a civilization into a regiment of ghosts — obedient ghosts, or tortured ghosts.
It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That’s false — tragically false.
Look for yourself.
This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas — it was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance.”
When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.”
