The Truth about Science and Power
Humanity contains the authors of its own destruction. We see them living and walking among us daily. Many are pulled into their orbits by the lure of their hubris and our own collective blindness.
The orbit of Science
Science is like the sun.
The sun holds the planets of our solar system within its gravitational grasp close enough to control their destinies while far enough to remain out of the reach of planetary harms. Science is like that too.
Research is the obsessive sibling of Science that seeks perfection.
Scientific investigation is a relentless human pursuit, almost like an obsession. Success in research can unleash enormous forces of power which humans can use, and have used, for both good or evil.
Engineering is the practical cousin of Science
That good and evil lurks in the hearts of men and women is self-evident. This fact has been manifest over and over again in our endless human creations, designs, applications, deployments and their consequences.
“Progress” is in the eye of the beholder
Hubris is more powerful than wisdom. Their successes and failures over the span of human history are witness to this fact.
Our greatest individual human accomplishments came mostly from individuals - artists, thinkers, writers, inventors, etcetera.
The annals of history are filled with tales of collective hubris and the graves they left behind.
The Science
The phrase “the Science” was coined when Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that he and his office represented Science. This included all of Science’s resources in relation to America’s institutions of medicine, research, public health best practices and authority.
Tell me. Did you detect a smidgeon of hubris when Fauci declared himself to be “The Science” ? LOL
Fauci inferred that The Science represents all of what is known about the world we humans inhabit. “Knowledge is Power”, some say. Fauci’ claim is typical of the scope and depth of the hubris required by monomaniacle power seekers like him.
The Science is not a god.
The Scientific understanding and knowledge of each human individual is necessarily limited by many factors which you can identify as readily as I. Gone are the days when an individual man or women can make a monumental scientific discovery such as gunpowder or the first antibiotic.
At the collective level, Science has been institutionalized at a level that would amaze and confound early inventors like Linus Pauling, Alexander Graham Bell and Albert Einstein.
The emergence of “The Science”, and its self-proclaimed apostles like Dr. Anthony Fauci, is grounded in an extraordinary level of self-rightrous hubris which is not dissimilar to institutions of religion and how they evolved over time.
Of course, hubris is a human personality trait that science doesn’t have.
Hubris is a common trait found in powerful men and women which can also be confused with the personality traits of confidence. It doesn’t take a scientist, however, to determine which is which. For one thing, hubris demands attention. Confidence not so much.
A time-tested model to replicate.
Some pundits claim that The Science is the new secular religion that is gradually displacing traditional religions.
The Roman Catholic Church, in which I was raised when I was a boy, revealed its narcissistic hubris in its churches. There, it displayed their wealth and regularly requested money from a congregation from which it demanded unquestioned loyalty.
Tibetan monks, on the other hand, are ascetics who live lives beyond thee attention of others in quiet solitude and reverence for symbols of their faith. No grand public displays are needed. These men are evidently immune to the attra
Real Science is practical and humble.
Scienctific investigation is an endless pursuit of gained a better understanding of Life in all of its forms. There are no sacred cows because every scientific theory can be subject to questioning and re-evaluation. Much of that theory have survived the test of time and endless probing by inquisitive minds. The “cutting edge” is where most of the action takes place to explore new possibilities.
Engineering transforms Science into things useful to humanity. Sometimes, however, men of hubris display their conceit and power on a grand and even a global stage. The internal combustion engine in a hugely beneficial example of the contribution of Engineering for good. The devastation wrought on Japan 80 years ago by two atomic bombs reminds us of the consequences when too much power is placed in the hands of men which too much hubris and insufficient wisdom to contain it.
While those bombs vaporized the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese men, women and children in the month of August 1945, too many men of great power and hubris remain til this day. They appear to be an indestructible species within humanity which replicate like spores in the proverbial petri dish of human laboratories to which we commonly refer as politics and public institutions.
We spend untold amounts of money and human capital on attempts to cure cancer and “fight” climate change, but where is the funding and effort to eradicate perhaps the greatest scourge of all - the hubris and its human bedfellows who lust after the wealth and power attracted like moths to a flame.
Source: https://copilot.microsoft.com/images/create/four-moths-attracted-to-a-single-candle-flame-in-a/1-66f949addfc64461a80b6b8efd2f3e99?id=OYzp0hThcUijAjkn05LcHA%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&idpclose=1&thId=OIG2.Bm9TgcOXXwWVxMyrwB.W&lng=en-US&ineditshare=1