Science is a method for establishing truth based on observation, experiment, measurement, and syllogistic logic. As the physicist Richard Feynman said, science is a method of organizing your information so as to avoid being fooled. Science offers a reliable way of knowing about the physical world. It can establish facts, but not human values. Is that why much of today’s society—or at least today’s politics—seems to be anti-science?
Political arguments whirl regarding the solvency of Social Security, the enduring recession, the inability of congress to pass a budget, and the monetary loans intended to postpone the collapse of Spain and Greece. The arguments don’t address the sisgnificant question. In the absence of war or pestilence, why do economic systems collapse even though the physical methods to produce food, clothing, and shelter exist unchanged?
Regulation is not always an imposition of political ideology. Most regulation is adopted by governmental agencies such as a city planning commission or the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), supposedly away from elected bodies like city councils, state legislatures, and congress. Regulation– from speed limits to barber licenses or pollution control– is theoretically free from partisan ideology. That’s a nice theory, but a myth.
With the expansion of drilling for natural gas in New York through Ohio, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and the southwest, the term “fracking” (or fracing) appears repeatedly—but incompletely—in the news. Fracking means hydraulic fracturing of an oil or natural gas well, but it seems the news media is fractured, delivering incomplete stories. Continue reading
Why is it that laws, regulations, and governmental policies are rarely formed according to the reality of the situation? Rather, a person, interest group, or party creates political pressure and financial rewards for a particular action. Is that why each action creates another problem? Certainly, each new law, regulation or policy creates new interactions among the actors in a complex system—and that’s more complexity. (See Blog 3.) I’m not a Libertarian; I don’t advocate erasure of most laws solely as a matter of principle. However, I do advocate looking before leaping, assessing real causes before applying ideal solutions. Let’s consider three diverse examples. Continue reading
These days, the term “holy war” brings to mind the conflict between Islamic terrorists and western cultures. Although the so-called Islamic Jihad is not the topic of this essay, there are some parallels between Islamic activism and American social movements. Those social movements are the topic, but first we need to distinguish those movements from the Islamic Jihad. I will paraphrase a description of the Jihad as given by James Turner Johnson, an academic scholar who has written several books on Islam and the west. Continue reading