Age of Unreason

Something which never ceases to amaze me is how, in this technological age, science has become so mistrusted. Whilst, on the one hand, people seem happy to embrace such fruits of scientific research as plasma television screens, mobile phones and iPods, on the other, they seem to have become increasingly mistrustful of other areas such as modern medicine, nuclear power, pharmaceuticals and the like. It is as if there is some spurious distinction being made between 'technology' (ie innovations with a suposedly practical, everyday use in the service of the consumer) and 'science' (ie often abstract seeming research usually carried out for its own sakeand used in service of faceless institutions. There really does seem to be some sort of addled idea in people's heads that 'technology' is controlled and used by them, whereas 'science' is something they are subjected to (in hospital, for instance), with this lack of control percieved as somewhat sinister and frightening. Ultimately, the trouble with 'science' as the popular press, in particular, sees it, is scientists. They are seen as remote, emotionally detatched, unaccountable, usually suffering from'God complexes' and - worst of all - intellectual. God forbid that anyone should be an intellectual and proud of it in this country!

Personally, I blame the pernicious influence of films, TV and comics - since the 1930s, at least, these have been portraying scientists in the most unflattering ways. Whole generations of kids have grown up convinced that anyone in a white coat is a gibbering lunatic hell-bent on discovering the secret of breeding giant bats - a goal which inevitably involves carrying out horrendous experiments involving glowing serums, radioactivity and brain transpants, on unsuspecting members of the public. Whilst many of these miscreants could easily be identified by their possession of a funny accent, ham acting and general resemblence to Bela Lugosi, others weren't antwhere nearso easy to spot! One could easily be fooled into believing that they really were kindly grey-haired old buffers who only wanted to benefit humanity with their research - just when you'd been lulled into a false sense of security, they started stealing your spinal fluid or turning you into an ape! But of course, those were just the mad scientists, who were generally self-employed and operated out of basement laboratories. One also had to be wary of the government scientists - truly sinister blank-faced characters who carried out experiments on industrial scales in order to provide their masters with death-rays, nuclear bombs and deadly toxins. Just like their freelance mad brethren, they always claimed to be working for the good of mankind - but we know better! Even when their experiments were supposedly beningn, they were always guaranteed to go awry and release giant tarantulas, fifty foot women radioactive gunk into major population centres. Face it, it doesn't matter whose government they were working for - you just can't trust 'em! Another group to beware of are the corporate scientists who work for pharmaceutical and chemical companies - they're always conducting cruel experiments on animals just for the hell of it, not to mention releasing untested chemicals into the ecosystem and carrying out dangerous drug trials on unsuspecting hospital patients! Finally, by the 1960s you also had the evil scientific genius, a cousin of the mad scientist who had better management skills and formed huge underground crime synidicates which regularly hold world governments to ransom through threats of biological warfare, giant space-borne lasers, stolen nuclear weapons and the like.

So, is it any wonder that people are turning away rom science in droves, preferring to seek out alternative medical treatments? Why risk being turned into a slavering half-man, half-venus fly-trap, when you go into hospital, when you could opt for one of those alternative therapies, such as coffee enemas? I mean, how much harm could possibly result from having coffee poured up your rectum? Unles it is served hot, of course. Actually, I've often wondered, does it make any difference if it caffinated or decaffinated coffee they use? Must it be taken black, or do you get a choice of milk, cream and/or sugar? However, I digress. Although I might sometimes despair at theis country's apparently ever-increasing appetite for new-age mysticism, astrology, alternative medicine and other such bollocks, in preference for science, at least we aren't as bad as the US yet. Over there they seem to be activily trying to roll back the advancement of science, with even the President advocating 'intelligent design' (ie creationism) over evolution. It seems the only type of science he wants is the type which allows him to blow up muslims, gays, 'old' Europeans and all other enemies of 'democracy'. With religion seemingly regaining the upper hand in the US, perhaps science should try a new approach. Maybe it is all that precision and certainty people dislike. Maybe scientists should all start wearing monk's cowls and heralding their discoveries as 'miracles', and just give up trying to explain them in rational terms. All their work could be justified as 'God given' then. Just a thought.