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SCIENCE
AND POLITICS
The endless struggle
between Science and Politics - through all of history - is footloose and
very much in the open in early 21st Century relationships. During
the second Bush administration, that conflict burst into open
intellectual conflict where the weapons of war are electronic
communications, government money, Presidential appointments, the
aspirations and politicians and scientists, the avarice of money makers,
perceived and investigated fact with an outrageous overlay of religious
dogma and evangelistic fervor. Sans the house arrest - it
sounds like the struggle of Galileo about issues of astronomy and Earth
v. Sun and which circles which!
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.Updated
Sunday, November 22, 2009 04:08 PM
President Obama has a
made a series of personnel decisions and policy decisions in the area of
science and technology which reverses several decades of frustration for
the science. He has elevated the science advisors in the White
House to senior advisor status. He continues to encourage changes
in the law in Congress that will encourage the science community, and
sign Executive Orders to make major changes in government policy in
areas like stem cell research. 2-17-08
Scientists across
the country have joined in a letter
(see Letter) to both Presidential candidates
asking for a close in and powerful appointee - even a cabinet department
- to coordinate science advice to the new Presidential Administration.
After eight years of direct conflict with the Bush Administration and
the religious right which intentionally skewed, even edited out,
scientific fact from government reports, the science world is seeking a
a change. A NASA public relations employee was finally fired for
refusing to publish any scientific report from NASA which referred to
data older than the 6000 year "creation date" which is policy in some
churches. An issue is that other departments try hard to control
science appointments internally in a power struggle with the White
House, arguing their control of appointments is critically to good
management. 11-03-08
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This
conflict between Science, Politics, and Religion is a part of the human
existence in all the history we know. While it has varied in
importance at different times, and is approached differently in
different cultures, in the 21st Century, in the United States, it is a
centerpiece in the struggle for intellectual freedom against government
repression.
Suppression
The current fuss is directed against
the President's attempt to suppress science that conflicts with his
administration's political base. The easy example is science on Planetary
Warming and research on Birth Control, Stem Cell Research,
Abortions and other "body control subjects."
Other than the White House policy in general on these sorts of subjects,
specific conflicts have arisen when his political appointees have altered
the science of government scientists and scholars working on federal
grants. Scientists and science groups have challenged this conduct aggressively
for several years, but have been more successful at it in recent months.
Suppression
of research - both by deprivation of funding and general public attacks -
has its impact on new ideas and new search for fact.
As
the so called "Conservative Movement" has gained power over the
last half century, suppression of fact outside the party dogma has been
business-as-usual. This dogma has dominated the Executive
appointments of all the Republican Presidents since Reagan as a litmus
test for appointment. Given the concept that intellectual integrity -
telling the truth in line with observed fact - is at the core of
scientific research, much of the suppression, much of political muscle of
this era has been applied by appointees untrained or outside the
scientific communities involved.
Impact of
the Religious Overlay
The role of the Christian Right and other religious groups was to
insist on certain conduct by the Republican Party since somewhere in the
1960's. The GOP didn't have much of a soul to start with, but sold
whatever it had for votes, and science was a victim. In a larger
sense, the struggle between religion and government took on a more obvious
role in recent years - and that is a good thing - better it be regulated
by the public over time than sneak around undercover to establish
policy. That conflict between government and religion has not made
it easy to be a political appointee in areas of government where religious
groups have an agenda.
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Caught
in the Act
January
30 2007: An international
conference of Scientists in Paris today set out proof that the Bush
Administration had muscled scholars to eliminate key words in papers
about the environment. The words were "global
warming" and phrases referring to temperature change.
Over-enthusiastic Bushies changed offensive words without authors'
permission and published some of the papers in changed form. Ouch!
Bush appointments have
been forced from office at NASA for similar acts of intellectual
integrity. Source: Union of Concerned Scientists
01-30-07 |
