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:Wed, 3 Sep 2003 18:36:55 -0700

SECOND OPINION FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, SEPTEMBER 3, 2003

" Nicholas Regush "

 

 

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

 

 

 

click to read articles.

 

http://www.redflagsdaily.com

 

SECOND OPINION

 

SCIENTIFIC THINKING IS STIFLED UNDER TOTALITARIAN REGIMES

 

You can see strong signs of this tragedy unfolding in so-called

" democratic " nations

 

By RFD Editor, Nicholas Regush

 

 

 

" Research cannot flourish if you cannot communicate with your fellow scientists;

if you cannot explain your ideas freely… "

 

" Thinking needs a free environment. Empirical research, where you have a

well-defined project with official approval, can indeed flourish even under a

totalitarian regime… "

 

" There are always barriers to science. Some come from the nature of the research

itself, and these have to be recognized and acknowledged. Others come from

outside, and these need to be minimized or eliminated. If you are asked to

confirm predetermined conclusions to further a social, political or religious

causes, that has to be resisted… "

 

***

 

Sometimes we need to jump outside of our cultural box in order to better

appreciate our own limitations. The above quotations are from an interview in

New Scientist (August 16, 2003) with philosopher of science, Abdolkarim Soroush.

He is Iranian and has recently returned to that country after being away for six

years. A well-known Iranian intellectual, he has argued that science cannot

progress under totalitarian regimes. At least not a " thinking " science.

 

Reading the interview with Soroush reinforced in me the increasingly visible

tragedy of how science — and that includes medicine — is hampered by ideology.

Not only in " totalitarian " nations but in " democratic " ones as well.

 

Indeed, many people involved in health cannot freely communicate their ideas,

but rather do so in a growing atmosphere of intolerance and corruption. I’m not

referring to Iran here, but to the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and elsewhere. This is

happening because of a build-up of an authoritarian reality in our midst — in

politics and in science itself.

 

Thinking does require a free environment; otherwise, people live in fear of

expressing themselves, of losing their status, their funding, their jobs.

 

And as for predetermined expectations, well, this has now become the heart and

soul of science in Western culture. Social, political and religious causes are

becoming the cornerstones of science. Possibly more than ever. And I get the

sense that more and more people are " believers, " rather than " seekers. "

 

In my various journeys through medical science as a reporter, either for print

or television, I found it very numbing to discover time and again people calling

themselves scientists who were afraid of their own shadow. Too fearful of

expressing opinion that went against the grain. Too timid to declare that some

portion of science had gone wrong. Too entrenched in the Great Money Grab to

care about the consequences of their sellouts.

 

Fortunately there are those who still haven’t caved in but they are in the

minority. Of course, there have always been people who wouldn’t bend to the

sound of a dollar bill flapping. But there is even more to resist these days.

 

Science in our culture is ensnared in ideologies; it is stifled science, one

that can’t breathe except for those who hold the power.

 

Can you see it? Can you feel it?