Friday, June 4. 2010
Just read a great blog written by my nephew Dan. He has a link on this page, Eschew Obfuscation. In his blog, Dan links the search for truth in science with the search for truth in democracy. “By science does democracy function.”
That’s a nice sentiment Dan, but the trouble with your conclusion is that it is based on the premise of an ideal society — I assume. As examples, Dan uses two of our best and brightest Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
As Dan points out, correctly, both Franklin and Jefferson were scientists and explorers and it was their faith in, and discipline for, the scientific method that led them and their colleagues to craft the Declaration of Independence.
In their real world experience, created on the anvil of our earliest forms of capitalism in a new world, the freedoms of the French Enlightenment were pounded into a philosophy that envisioned American citizens have certain inalienable rights: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. These three were left almost vague, opaque, leaving it up to the individual to decide how to define his life, what liberties he wished to use and what would make him happy.
In other words, and this won’t go over too smoothly, they crafted a document that codified selfishness. This was at the root of the loose confederation of states that sprung up right after the rebels defeated the British Army at Yorktown, VA. Every state was to decide independently how to govern, what was to pass for currency, etc. The central government had little, if any, power. This philosophy created chaos and thus was created the Constitution of the United States.
In that hallowed document is Article VI — the “Supremacy Clause” — that basically says federal law is the supreme law of the land. For example: here in California growing, distributing, buying and using marijuana for medical purposes is legal under state law. But, according to federal law anyone who engages in those activities is still breaking the law and can be prosecuted in federal court. And some people have been prosecuted since California legalized “medical marijuana.”
But let’s not get too far off into that tangent. Back to Dan’s idea that “by science democracy does function.” In the kernels of that tangent though is the codification of selfishness: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
For democracy to be a function of science, i.e., for democracy to actually be formed by the scientific method, all participants have to adhere to that method. Few, if any, do, at least in this nation. Yeah, we get a lot of laws correct, like the various Civil Rights bills of the 1960’s, but in our contemporary political climate, that is barely the case.
Currently we have a president who is a critical thinker, and that is a good thing. But his views and policies are formed by pragmatism more than idealism, a bane to his followers on the left. What many on the left consider “true” health care reform is glaringly absent from the health care bill that recently passed, while everything that is wrong with the health care system in America has been strengthened.
This was a result of President Obama’s pragmatism. According to his ideal, we would all have health care based on proven American models like the V.A. Health Care System, but the recent bill doesn’t even come close to that model. Instead of sticking to his ideals, the president left the end product to the vagaries of our legislative branch that is torn by sharp partisanship and drowning in the money of corporations that can afford billions to influence lawmakers.
What we got was a bill that may improve the system a little, but not one that will ensure every American will be able to get health care, the goal the president and his supporters demanded during the president’s campaign for that office.
Not really a testament to the scientific method and Dan’s ideal that skeptical inquiry will give us the best of democracy. See, those who opposed health care reform didn’t do so for skeptical inquiry, they did it for political expediency and those opponents made no bones about how their decision to oppose the president on everything is based entirely on defeating the president, regardless of the consequences. Not based on skeptical inquiry, but political expediency.
But thinking about the thesis that “by science does democracy function,” it’s a great idea. If all the participants engage in the scientific method when forming the laws that govern us, as Franklin and Jefferson did 235 years ago forming the Declaration of Independence, we would have a government that actually was by, of and for the people.
Selfishness though, stands in front of that idealism and selfishness is an American Ideal. It’s in the Declaration of Independence. Now, many people will consider that to be the height of cynicism. But, the truth is in the pudding, so to speak. No one wants to pay taxes, or any more taxes, but everyone wants the government to provide services, like fixing that horror in the Gulf of Mexico. The government doesn’t have any of the equipment or technology for deepwater drilling so there’s not a whole lot the government can do, other than pressure the oil companies to fix it.
We want cheap gasoline and are willing to fund nations that then fund terrorist organizations who mount attacks against our nation and our allies. Or, demand we drill for oil anywhere within our lawful grasp, ignoring the potential — and now real — consequences of doing so. We want cheap products to buy from Wal-Mart, and are willing to kill jobs in America and send then to China to get those cheap products, which then turn out to be dangerous to use.
Do “you” care that the people living on the next block over are losing their homes because their jobs have disappeared? Not really, as long as you can buy Levis jeans cheaply from whatever outlet you prefer, their problems are not our problems. Not gonna pick on Wal-Mart, although that company is the biggest purveyor of cheap, foreign-made products. We want “ours” and we want it before “they” get theirs.
The scientific method gets lost in the shuffle when we are only concerned with “what’s in it for me?” Not to mention, most Americans, at least many Americans, have no idea what the scientific method is or means.
When Jefferson and Franklin cast great shadows over history, it’s hard to imagine they took into account that too many of their fellow citizens, both contemporary and in the future, would be dumb as rocks. That’s often how idealists think. They assume most everyone will be imbued with their same spirit once the ideals they espouse come to fruition. Not so with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
What “we” have been imbued with is this notion of the “free market,” until that free market crashes and burns half the nation with it.
It’s still a nice idea though: “By science does democracy function.”
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