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Scientific Snake
Oil
By Ed
Howes
Governments around the world have
bowed before the science gods. If a thing is scientific and
scientifically proven in short term testing, it is good. It is to be
approved for human use. If scientists cannot discover the cause of
disease and aging, they can treat the effects. If one hundred people
respond well to their medicine and gladly pay the purchase price,
they’ll sell it to millions. If one, two or ten of the one hundred
develop other illnesses from the same medicine, the good outweighs
the bad. The marketers get rich and the scientists keep their jobs.
Too bad about the one or ten.
No one on earth is suffering from
drug deficiency disease, yet American television advertising would
have us believe we are all suffering from drug deficiency diseases.
As physically ill as the American people are in general, the mind -
body connection is marginalized by the science gods and mental
illness wins elections.
We understand that scientists are as
a rule, better educated than most of their potential victims, so we
leave the heavy thinking to them and hope for the best. We hear that
nuclear reactors can be much better constructed today than thirty
years ago, which is to say, however good science is at any given
point, there is always room for improvement and time provides it.
This is also to say at any given time, any science is far from
perfect and no one reasonably expects perfection in anything man
made.
The fact is, most scientists are
hirelings, paid to produce some profitable result for some corporate
employer. As we can see from the current drug company scandals,
which are but the tip of the iceberg compared to the revelations of
the next few years, customers are guinea pigs and victims who bought
the magic buzz words, scientifically proven.
How many people are killed and
injured each year by standard medical practice? Nobody knows and
very few care. We just point to average lifespan increase with no
reference to quality issues and say, science good. We can decide to
risk the side effects of any given medicine for the promised
benefits. If we don’t get the benefit, we change the dose, switch
brands or try an entirely different one. Often we get the benefit
and one or more side effects. If because we are not the typical
patient and our side effect is not one of those listed on the
packaging, we may be prescribed yet another medicine to deal with
that side effect. If that produces a bad result because no one is
sure what the combination might produce, how much damage have we
already done to our natural body chemistry? No point asking your
doctor. He probably knows less than you because the whole thing is
your experience, not his.
The world could have had automobiles
that achieved over two hundred miles per gallon fifty years ago and
cars that ran on water and went even further on a gallon. But all
that is garage and basement science so it is suppressed for the sake
of Big Oil, Big Energy, Big Banking and Big Government profits. For
fifty years we have been pouring 95% of our fuel purchases into our
atmosphere. If science is wonderful, it is also selective and must
first answer the question, who benefits? This is the non scientific,
critical question that is asked in all marketing and political
decisions that drive modern science.
Many of us have been in work
situations where we find a worker dedicated to doing less to earn
his pay than any other worker. Such is the work ethic of most
commercial science. Scientists are rightly evolutionists on the
whole. They labor long hours and years for incremental, evolutionary
changes. If one of their associates develops a revolutionary
solution to a problem, he is shunned and his work suppressed.
Perhaps the best example of this is the late Nineteenth and early
Twentieth Century inventor, Nikola Tesla. Nikola would have a vision
of some practical device, build it, test it, then do the drawings
for the patent application. At the same time, Thomas Edison would be
working many months, 18-20 hours a day, inventing an electric light
bulb by trial and error. Edison died a rich man. Tesla died a pauper
and most of his best inventions never came to market. Scientific
evolution has proved profitable for more than a century and
revolution has been suppressed by those who would suffer economic
losses or smaller profits. There are many more such examples from
the Twentieth Century.
The great, revolutionary science is
worked out in basements and garages around the world. No financing,
no encouragement and no marketing. In the well funded private,
corporate and university labs, evolutionary, incremental change is
the unwritten rule.
And what is the promise of science
that we should bow and worship at its altar? It is more and better
for less. What if we suddenly decided to settle for less and better
for less? Could commercial science provide, or would that be too
revolutionary? A peddler goes from town to town selling snake oil.
Many gather, some buy and the guardians of public welfare urge him
to move along. Another peddler comes along selling snake oil in a
white lab coat and the guardians of public welfare rent him an
office. Go figure.
Ed Howes sought
and found, knocked and entered. Now he sees things differently. To
see more of what he sees, please visit http://www.justanotherview.com
or do an author search here at Ezine Articles.
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