Recruiting the Armies of Ignorance

[arendt]

Recruiting the Armies of Ignorance
by arendt

As a scientist, the balance of forces between me and
book-burning fanatical ignorance is looking pretty
bad, both inside the U.S. and in the world at large.

To be a scientist is to, above all, demand reproducible
behaviors and to apply the scientific method to those behaviors.
In some ways, science is like Zen Buddhism. It has
methodology, not doctrine. You do things according to
the method, and you get the results the method produces.
Nothing more, nothing less. No value judgments, no
dogmas. Just conditionally-true statements that can be
modified over time as new results come in.

Science is intellectually engaging as well as producing valuable
artifacts that society can use for good or for ill. To science, the world
is the ultimate jigsaw puzzle. Just as with a jigsaw, you don't get to
force-fit one piece if it messes up the entire picture.

Some of the more prominent of those pieces include:

1) the theoretical explanation of the fact of plate tectonics,
which has tied together such obvious physical facts as the
matching of continental outlines, the commonality of
species on continents that were long-ago joined, and the
locations of volcano and earthquake zones.

2) the theoretical explanation called the big bang,
which explains the existence of the ubiquitous microwave
background radiation. We couldn't even begin to look
for such radiation until we had invented microwave
technology. (Now, if the Bible had made this prophecy,
I would be a convert.)

3) the genetic code, which fact is used literally millions
of times a day in the course of making products with
genetically engineered bacteria, making medical
diagnoses with genetic tests, and performing criminal
investigations based on DNA fingerprints. Cross-species
examination of such codes produces trees of species
evolution and timelines for that evolution from mitochondrial
mutation rates.

----

But, all of these facts and their excellent fit to the jigsaw
puzzle of science set fundamentist wackos' teeth on
edge. Why? Because these facts dare to question the timeline
of their ludicrously literal reading of the Bible And, because
they demonstrate the ongoing inter-connectedness of
all life on this planet.

The latter result raises environmentalism to a stature that does
not mesh with the agendas of plundering extractive corporations
who bankroll both the "junk science" apologists for ever more
pollution and the junk science apologists for the lying-on-its-face
Creation Science "movement".

Another sticking point with fanatics is that scientific predictions
have a much higher likelihood of being true than the so-called
prophetic utterances of modern-day revivalist preachers
concerning the imminent end of the world. (Bush's use of the word
"imminent" to describe Saddam's threat was another coded
message to his marching moron supporters.)

And, since this is America, where money talks and science
walks, the Georgia school commission has decided that
children shall not be exposed to certain scientifically verified
facts that are basic to living in our technologically-dependent,
world-striding culture.

These ideological idiots are busy shoving the captain and crew of
the ship of science overboard so they can run that ship aground
in fulfillment of their pronouncements that God will sink this satanic
contraption. Talk about self-fulfilling suicidal prophecy!

----

And, how convenient for the pillaging and polluting corporations
that a scientifically-illiterate, nay an anti-science, population will
easily accept putting the blame for the impending environmental
disasters and resource depletions on the heads of the very scientists
who tried to stop them.

How convenient that the reproducibility (i.e., consistency) of their
demonizing explanations of evil science is honored only in the
breaches of logic that pass for thought among fundamentalists:

- There is no objection to military scientists using genetic engineering
to whip up hideous diseases.

- There is no objection to putting dubiously-tested microwave battle
stations into orbit to defend against cost-ineffective and infinitesimal
probability "terrorist" ICBMs.

- There is no objection to profitable pie-in-the-sky studies that propose
dumping toxic waste into descending tectonic plate edges, instead of
finding far cheaper ways not to produce said toxic waste in the first place.

Why does this War on Some Science remind me of the War
on Some Drug Dealers (the ones without CIA connections)
and the War on Some Terrorists (the ones without CIA or
Mossad connections)?

----

And, the religious far-right is open about the fact they think of
this as War. They see themselves as being in a Culture War
against modernity. Of course, I could just as easily be referring to
Afghanistan as to Atlanta. There is nothing truly Christian
about such blind fanaticism, although the history of the Catholic
Church is full of witchhunts, Crusades, Inquisitions, book-burnings,
and imprisonments of scientists like Galileo.

In fact, Islamic civilization started its descent when its religious
fanatics decided not to pursue Western-style science because
it was not religiously correct. Today, the proud heritage of Islamic
scholarship is in ruins, but fundamentalist fanatics there are
riding high. America is starting down the same road, despite
what history has taught us about the wages of ignorance.

Yet, fundamentalism wears its ignorance as a badge of faith.
To fundamentalists, thinking is the work of Satan. I wouldn't
object so much if these people followed their own logic.
If they did, they would simply marginalize themselves like the
intellectually honest Amish.

If the fundies were honest, they would have to give up the televisions
and radios (whose programming is distributed via microwave relays)
that spew their message of ignorance and destruction. They would
have to give up the SUVs with which they mindlessly pollute the planet
(using oil from fields found by applying plate tectonics). They would
have to give up the hospitals (full of microwave-frequency MRI machines)
and medicines (increasingly derived from genetic knowledge) that save
their sorry asses from their corporate-dictated lifestyle of too much fat,
grease, and salt, plus no exercise.

But, logic is another one of those snares of the devil. So, fundies
see no contradiction between decrying science while benefitting
from it. Its Claude Raines and "your winnings, sir" all over again.

----

At bottom, the Culture War is really a Mafia-style takeover. Not just
gangsters, but gangsters with family values. (The pro-choice people
were on to something when they sued abortion protesters under the
RICO laws.) The most rigid, patriarchal code of conduct will be imposed
on society because its proponents are the most willing to resort to violence.
This code's only values are loyalty to the Don, misogyny, and as much
greed as you can get away with. Anyone who looks too smart or too different
can expect to get kneecapped, just on general principles.

Rigid, family-based hierarchy is a given; profiteering, extortion, and
corruption-protected vice are a way of life; and any justice to be found
is provided by a gun or a knife. (I must be really slow, because I just got
the appeal of gangster movies to angry white guys - its not the violence;
its the whole "the Don is King in his family" shtick.)

In an ignorant society, the schools are places where curiosity is beaten
out of children so they will be obedient, repressed chattel, whose boiling
anger at this repression can be directed at the millenia-old usual suspects
of gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, intellectuals, and feminists. RIght on cue,
the Georgia school board is heralding our new age; and finally, the
science establishment has decided to fight.

The pro-science crowd gets mobilized about once every ten years, and each
time, their starting position is more precarious; there are fewer well-educated
people and more angry idiots. While the scientists have won battle after battle,
the Armies of Ignorance are winning the recruiting battle and the war. A fanatic
president is now carrying the battle to the national science establishment,
appointing crackpots, religious ideologues, and corporate apparatchiks. If the
science establishment loses this battle, it has lost the war.

The Georgia school board is setting up a Recruiting Office for the
Armies of Ignorance; and I, for one, am looking for Thomas Huxley,
Clarence Darrow, Albert Einstein, and anyone else I can find who wants
to stop these medieval lunatics from ruining America and perverting the
American Dream into yet another obscurantist religious gulag.

[BR_Parkway]

1. The fundies claim creation over evolution and don't want to

look at genetic evidence, claiming it is "junk science" - but then say homosexuals arent "made that way" because there hasn't been a genetic marker identified. As in many things, they want it their way, both ways - in spite of the facts.

[DenverDem]

2. Arendt for President!!

Too bad you're not "electable".

Please expand this post into a book and help to save the world from fundamentalist idiocy.

[pscot]

3. Splendid rant

The country does seem to be getting dumber with each passing year. Religious enthusiasm seems to occur in cycles. Maybe the tide will turn. I wish I believed that.

[Solly Mack]

4. Have I told you lately how wonderful you are?

You're wonderful!!!!

Love this piece!!!!

Thank you!

[Az]

5. How we come to believe things

The human brain develops along emotional lines. The stronger the emotional reaction the stronger the tie. As we grow we develop a collection of experiences cataloged via this process. parental reinforcement eventually leads us to collecting enough information to be able to communicate and eventually begin to formulate our own conceptualization of the universe around us.

Eventually we discover reason and logic as methods of tempering out experiences. The trouble comes when we come across ideas or concepts that disagree with each other. If the new information does not override our current emotionaly collected concepts they will lose out in the struggle. The strength of emotional reliance on reason and logic have a bearing on this. So to does a potential neurological adherance to established patterns. These factors struggle for balance within a persons mind to determine what they accept as true.

There are no social institutions attempting to reinforce the teachings of science. Scientists unfortunately are usually unconcerned with convincing the public of their findings. They are satisfied with peer review processes and being published in journals. It is the rare combination of science and social action in the persona of people like Carl Sagan and Bill Nye that manage to restimulate the publics awareness of science. Meanwhile religion forge ahead with major institutions entirely dedicated to the propogation of their particular teachings.

It is difficult for the common person to know what to believe. They are not grounded in the methodologies of science and often see it as just another book claiming to pronounce the truth. In that light they have no reason to abandon that which has real meaning and impact to them in their life. Churches and religions are a real force in lives. The social interaction builds up the emotional reliance on the institutions on a daily basis. A scientist walking up to such an individual and telling them that they are descended from some ape like primate from the far distant past is going to have no impact on their life.

[arendt]

6. There used to be, but they got called for "promoting atheism"...

as does anyone who crosses the religious nut cases.

> The human brain develops along emotional lines. The stronger the
> emotional reaction the stronger the tie.

You must have read Damasio or LeDoux. I agree completely.

> There are no social institutions attempting to reinforce the teachings of
> science. Scientists unfortunately are usually unconcerned with convincing
> the public of their findings.

Yes, and the public cannot even distinguish between "science" and
the "technology" it creates. Corporations call finding a new flavor for
chewing gum "research".

It is all part of the general and deliberate dumbing down of the population
via mass culture.

You do not need to teach people how to misbehave and dis-attend.
You need to teach children, from the earliest age when their minds
are capable of learning it, how to pay attention and how to behave
properly.

There are "windows" during which the brain is available for certain
kinds of learning. It is known you must learn *some* language by
about age 12, or you will never be able to again. It is known that
how you hear language phonemes is fixed by about age 3, so that
someone not exposed to a particular language before that age will
always speak it with an accent.

New research is showing that paying attention is a learned skill, and
that the window is about ages 5-8. Great, we are handing these kids
videogames and putting them in front of TVs just when they need to
learn how to structure their own time.

I postulate that there is a learning window for being politically aware of
greater social issues than those concerned with personal morality.
If you reach age 30 and you haven't thought about how politics is
used, you will be forever politically illiterate - excellent raw material
for being manipulated by the paternalistic garbage that is the lowest
common denominator of all politics. Paternalism is the most primitive
of all political attitudes. It is an attitude that reaches back to wild animals.

Recapping, to be scientifically aware, you have to be scientifically
educated. To be scientifically educated, you have to have a non-
politicized educational system. To have a non-politicized system,
you have to keep the nutcases out of government.

We have lost all the way back to the end of the chain. We have to
first get the nutcases out of offices, then fix the school system, and
finally, we will get a population that can appreciate science again.

It is going to be a long, hard fight.

arendt

[earthman dave]

7. Great post.

Nice timing for the assault on science, just when we need it most. As if patents weren't slowing down research enough already, the fundies have to stick their oar in. I wish us all luck.

[arendt]

8. Rush hour kick n/t

n/t

[Jimb100]

9. Gotta Love 'em

Hey, they're doing the best they can.

Science is complex and the world is a scary place. Always has been. Uncertainty is the commonplace, not the exception.

Scientific 'facts' have frequently been modified or simply replaced by more accurate 'facts'. Science ain't perfect! As I'm sure you'll admit.

In truth, there are no 'facts'. There are only theories that are useful because they appear to be predictably repeatable, and thus allow us to to do things predictably.

But I wish I had a nickel for all the scientists who 'knew' things that weren't true and had to backtrack after 'truer' truths became known. Even the late 20th century has had its share and I'm sure the 21st will spring lots of surprises on the scientific community. So let's not give the world of science a free pass and put our feet up because 'science is taking care of it!' No deification for the scientific community, please.

Now me, I can live with some uncertainty.

But some percentage of the population has a real problem with uncertainty. Uncertainty leads to stress for them and real discomfort. These emotional responses are unpleasant in the extreme for some of us and this doesn't appear to correlate to intelligence. I've met seemingly intelligent people who interpret the bible literally. We do, though, also have a lot of intelligent 'believers' who pander to the camera, at least I hope that's the case.

For these people, religion offers a great stress reliever - The notion that someone is in charge, making sure the world keeps turning on a predictable path helps them get through the day without paralyzing fear.

The physics are beyond them and don't relieve the stress because fallible men reveal these 'truths'. Marx was right in calling religion the opiate of the masses. But religion satisfies like no opiate can because it goes right to the heart of the problem and provides answers to every question. Most of the time the answer must be taken on faith but its an answer they can live with because the ability to believe goes hand in hand with the need to believe.

Its like evolution gave them a crutch and those with the stress but without the crutch were weeded out in the process.

You can rail against them, criticize and ridicule, but you can't change these 'facts'! Genetic engineering is the only thing that's going to remove the creationist viewpoint from humanity.

Its not a matter of education, its not a case of more science.

[arendt]

10. Welcome to DU, Jimb100

> Its like evolution gave them a crutch and those with the stress
> but without the crutch were weeded out in the process.
> You can rail against them, criticize and ridicule, but you can't
> change these 'facts'! Genetic engineering is the only thing that's
> going to remove the creationist viewpoint from humanity.
> Its not a matter of education, its not a case of more science.

There's an alternative you haven't mentioned: we wipe them out
before they kill us all. But that's a tad bit paranoid :-).

I don't know how many people I've met who say "how do you
argue with people who are absolutely convinced they have it
right?"

I think the only method of communication is to hit them where it
hurts. Sue their asses off; and when they scream religious persecution,
sue them some more. Sue them for their fraudulent manipulative
bunko scams to raise money. Sue them for their bias in hiring when
using Bush's Federal money.

I'm with Brian dePalma: When they put one of yours in the hospital,
you put one of theirs in the morgue.

Lack of intelligence is not supposed to be a survival trait. The only
reason it is for these people is that the corporations are using them
to destroy the middle class. Once they accomplish that, these suckers
will be no different than the third world nutcases who still believe in
witch doctors. They can keep their beliefs as long as the corporations
can keep the suckers' money.

Once again, welcome to DU. Thank you for your intelligent, if
worrisome comments.

arendt

[Jimb100]

13. Thanks for the welcome

Sadly, I don't disagree with much in your last post.

I say 'sadly', because I see the corporations corrupting the "Marshall Plan" to eliminate the middle class in America and make the whole world a rich/poor society. Its another proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

After WWII we were right to extend a helping, rather than colonizing, hand to the world to eliminate economic reasons for war. It wasn't too wrenching to help western Europe back on its feet. It didn't take long and soon they were pulling their own weight as cooperative competitors.

I suppose a 'one world' economy had to follow and since we have the most, when the playing field gets levelled to improve conditions in India, Pakistan, and the Pacific Rim, its the middle class in the west that falls while the third world rises.

It certainly wasn't going to be the wealthy class that was reduced in the process. After all, they are the ones making the rules. Its factory jobs and educated service positions that flow to cheaper labor sites. The staple of the middle class and the traditional road to equality for minorities in America.

I never cease to be amazed at how short sighted the religious right is in this country, voting for people who over promise and don't deliver. It would seem enough for them to say "I'm pro-life, pro-gun, pro-military and supportive of family values. I only ever kissed my wife and I gave up drinking, smoking and swearing years ago. I go to church every Sunday and pray every day." They believe in politicians that say these things like they believe in god. Its a matter of faith.

These people have become to the Republicans what ethnic and racial minorities had become to the Democrats, so I do see a little of the pot and kettle in all this, although the ethnic and racial minorities were never monolithic and were flexible on most issues.


What's the answer? I'm not sure there is one or if there is even one needed. Clinton begat NAFTA and Bush implements a prescription drug plan. Republicans champion deficit spending and Democrats demand a balanced budget. Franklin Roosevelt spins in his grave and sometimes I think Eleanor would be more at home with Barbara Bush than Hillary. We may have reached some zero sum game where tweedle dum and tweedle dee are different in ways so subtle that only a Harvard lawyer could define the differences.

Sometimes I think its a world gone mad.

[arendt]

14. "no good deed goes unpunished" - a fitting epitaph for American democracy

> These people have become to the Republicans what ethnic and racial
> minorities had become to the Democrats,

My wife says that the basic promise of fundamentalist politicians
to angry white guys is:

elect us to be your masters;
obey us and we will let you be masters over your wives and children,
and we will let white folks be masters over colored folks, too.

It all comes back to hierarchy, patriarchy, and tribalism - and violence in
support of all three.

The only weapon against these people is education, which is precisely
what the fundies are busy dismantling, perverting, co-opting, hijacking,
privatizing, etc.

You can fight the fundies right here and now, or you can watch them
take over.

</rant> sorry - for public consumption, got carried away.

arendt

[newyawker99]

15. Hi Jimb100!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LoneStarLiberal]

11. A Higher Ed Perspective

I work in an IT environment at a public university in Texas. I and some friends of mine here at work are constantly amazed that we have as many creationists as we do around here running many of our core network systems. Our joke whenever our email and scheduling system fritzes out or some particular bit of functionality is lost for some unforseen amount of time is that it's all down to "creationist network management."

It's a joke that is delivered with a bitter taste because Texas, and in particular Texas public schools, have been mentally neutered to the lowest common denominator. The degree to which the social conservatives, those who hate science, the creationists, have control in my beloved Lone Star State can be seen in some of the recent knuckle-dragging legislation passed by our state Republican echo chamber, also known as our state legislature, in their last session. Chief among the anti-scientific, anti-progressive pieces of junk that this legislature produced is the "Women's Right to Know Act," an odious and hateful piece of legislation aimed directly at further diluting women's reproductive choices in Texas. It has no basis in science and every bit of basis in fear.

Part of the problem I see on a weekly basis in my position has to do with the education of teachers. Our system, which I fear is similar to many other systems of teacher education, is a watered-down mockery that will produce good teachers only if those entering the bachelor's programs already have the basic tools and desire. Sadly, many do not. For those many who do not, my university and many universities like mine across the state and nation produce batches of teachers who cannot be faulted for their ignorance of the very subject matter they are to teach; the fault lies with the institutions that are supposed to educate them but that have comprehensively FAILED in favor of grade inflation, the most odious degrees of social promotion, and the attitude of a degree mill that is very interested in trading your money for their credentials irrespective of whether or not you are competent.

There is a tautological structure to this most grave problem, a structure arendt alludes to, and a structure that we must figure where to break if we are to survive as a nation of tolerant and enlightened citizens instead of failing as a nation of serfs chained down by our corporate and political pimps.

[arendt]

12. Fundies are control freaks - they make great sys ads

Anal retentive jerks, they do the scut work; and then they
subtly take over.

I don't know how many fundie engineers I have had run-ins
with. They are mega dittoheads. Smart enough to repeat Rush's
poison at great length; and totally resonant with the "pater
familias" message of fundamentalism, Promise Keepers, etc.

These guys usually come with totally submissive wives and
lots of kids. Wasn't Andrea Yates' husband some kind
of engineer?

Engineers can be the most dangerous of fundies because
they are smart, middle-class, and uber patriotic. They get
promoted for these values, so that top management is a
phalanx of these assholes.

----

I am sorry to hear that even the system for producing teachers
is infested with these know-nothings.

> There is a tautological structure to this most grave problem, a
> structure arendt alludes to, and a structure that we must figure
> where to break if we are to survive

Its a closed system. You can't break into it. You can only build
your own system and keep them out. Create a competing viewpoint,
and control the rules in your own domain. Call it "containment",
which we must use because the "nuclear option" in confronting
these dangerous people is unthinkable.

arendt

[Djinn]

16. I'm amazed

that this thread hasn't been pounced on by people claiming that you're "defaming Christians" - names withheld to protect the gullible - funny they never see their beliefs as defaming everyone else, if you're a christian (believe in Jesus as son of god, died for our sins and resurected) that in itself is blasphemous to muslims and jews. The jewish and islamic belief that Jesus WASNT the S.O.G is blasphemous to christians. They have their opinionm that we're all going to hell but if we say "you're wasting your time" we're evil incarnate.

I'm all for religious beliefs if they help you through the night but they should have absolutely no place in public life at all