What is Truth? The Corruption of Science
Timothy Birdnow
According to this piece in the Financial Times, the CRU scandal is hardly unique in Britain; the whole scientific establishment is festering in fraud and dishonesty.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bc6f7204-3d1f-11e1-8129-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1jLldiDap
From the article:
"UK research is plagued with misconduct, according to a survey of 2,700 scientists by the British Medical Journal. It found that 13 per cent had first-hand knowledge of UK-based researchers deliberately altering or fabricating data, while 6 per cent were aware of misconduct that had not been properly investigated.
The BMJ released the results at a conference in London where experts pushed for stronger action to tackle what they said was a problem being ignored by many universities, hospitals and other scientific institutions.
“The BMJ has been told of junior academics being advised to keep concerns to themselves to protect their careers, being bullied into not publishing their findings, or having their contracts terminated when they spoke out,” she added."
End Excerpt.
Yet Britain is one of the cornerstones of climate research, and we are told we must completely reorganize Western Civilization based on science coming out of Britain. If much of that science is garbage, falsehoods, why should we take them seriously?
But then, we have been told repeatedly to ignore the Climategate e-mails and accept the word of "independent investigators" rather than our own lying eyes.
This is what happens when huge amounts of government money begin flowing into science. When research was catch-as-catch-can and results mattered in terms of profitability to a private investor or the dollars from a foundation were limited, there was an incentive to do good science. Not now; there is a huge amount of money involved, and the government doesn't want honest results but rather results they can use. Catastrophism backed by science is a result that works very well for governments, because they can panic their own people into line, get more tax revenue to deal with the "crisis", and gather power to themselves. The truth doesn't matter. And the whores in the scientific community will happily prostitute their research for the money and prestige.
Much is made about "Big Oil" money funding "denier" research, but Big Oil is a piker next to the gargantuan resourced that can be poured into science by governments. That is why I always laugh at the fools who accuse Exxon Mobile; why is government the holder of purer motives than an oil company? They have a lot more money, and the power of law, too. If you suspect Exxon-Mobile, you really should suspect the IPCC.
But you can't kid a kidder. The smarter of this group understands this fact, and the stupider of them will never understand.
In the end, science has become a call girl, a lady of the evening. Global Warming is the most egregious example, but there are plenty of others. We've had so many scares; alar, dioxin, mercury, now fracking for oil causing earthquakes. I could compose a list, but it would take up too much of our mutual time.
Whatever happened to the search for truth?
Two thousand years ago a government shill made the perfect case for post-modern scientific corruption. During the trial of Jesus Christ, Roman governor Pontius Pilate famously asked "what is truth?" It was not a question exactly, but a statement of moral relativism. Pilate, like government types before him and like his progeny into the present day, believed there is no such thing as Truth, but that all is relative to the observer. Truth is what the party says it is. If the Emperor said he had conquered Britain a half hour after leaving the city of Rome then he conquered Britain (Caligula, who pardoned Pilate after the death of Tiberius - who had recalled Pilate for a massacre of Samaritans - did that, going to the outskirts of the city and grabbing local farmers as "captured warriors". He then re-entered the city to a Triumph, with the public clamouring "all hail the Conqueror of Britain.) Governments don't like Truth, because it gets in the way of their actions. They prefer sweet lies, lies that can advance their agenda. Nothing has really changed.
And Britain, moribund by the welfare state, has more to gain and lose than most. The entire post-WWII era has been built on a lie in "Great" Britain, and deep down I suspect most people know that. These little socialist games they have played cannot be justified by reality, and nobody really believes this is an adequate substitute for the Britain of old, but the ruling class doesn't want the Britain of old, but rather a compliant, sheep-like people. They want Engsoc. They have to pretend to be that which they are not. And so science has to be corrupted to justify the continuation of the failed experiment that is Britain. Should their grip falter for one moment the public will howl "the Emperor has no clothes" and everything the socialists have built over 65 years will collapse. So new scares, new causes, new crises must be invented. Environmentalism is a big one, and Global Warming is her crown jewel.
Michael Crichton touched on this in his discussion of the "state of fear"; Crichton argued that the ruling classes in the West maintain their power by keeping the public lathered up with crises and fear-mongering. They have replaced the traditional controls of bygone eras; honor, faith, patriotism, with the culture of fear and crisis. The Universities and think tanks are the wombs of these endless panic attacks, hatching up crazier and crazier things for people to be frightened about. A symbiotic media takes up the cause, promoting the "science" to achieve political ends. Governments then take the ball, passing laws and organizing against emergencies that do not exist. The populace gets so frightened that people actually take their own lives in despair, yet the elites, the ruling classes, simply take it to the next level, or adopt the newest fright fest.
Western culture contains the seeds of it's own destruction. The Enlightenment puffed up the intellectuals, who have believed in their divine right to rule ever since. That reign comes from their official "expertise" and the reverence accorded them. That reverence stemmed from the value of what they were doing, of the miraculous wonders science and technology wrought. But now science is becoming degraded, a tool to the ruling class itself. I suspect we are reaching the peak in science, and will find in the future fewer and fewer breakthroughs as doctrine trumps Truth.
Nietzche believed that, and while I think Nietzche was an ass, I suspect he's right in this instance. Eventually science will question itself, become so cynical that it will no longer believe there is such a thing as truth. When that happens our civilization will be finished.
What is Truth? Increasingly, it is what the Party says it is.
According to this piece in the Financial Times, the CRU scandal is hardly unique in Britain; the whole scientific establishment is festering in fraud and dishonesty.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bc6f7204-3d1f-11e1-8129-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1jLldiDap
From the article:
"UK research is plagued with misconduct, according to a survey of 2,700 scientists by the British Medical Journal. It found that 13 per cent had first-hand knowledge of UK-based researchers deliberately altering or fabricating data, while 6 per cent were aware of misconduct that had not been properly investigated.
The BMJ released the results at a conference in London where experts pushed for stronger action to tackle what they said was a problem being ignored by many universities, hospitals and other scientific institutions.
“The BMJ has been told of junior academics being advised to keep concerns to themselves to protect their careers, being bullied into not publishing their findings, or having their contracts terminated when they spoke out,” she added."
End Excerpt.
Yet Britain is one of the cornerstones of climate research, and we are told we must completely reorganize Western Civilization based on science coming out of Britain. If much of that science is garbage, falsehoods, why should we take them seriously?
But then, we have been told repeatedly to ignore the Climategate e-mails and accept the word of "independent investigators" rather than our own lying eyes.
This is what happens when huge amounts of government money begin flowing into science. When research was catch-as-catch-can and results mattered in terms of profitability to a private investor or the dollars from a foundation were limited, there was an incentive to do good science. Not now; there is a huge amount of money involved, and the government doesn't want honest results but rather results they can use. Catastrophism backed by science is a result that works very well for governments, because they can panic their own people into line, get more tax revenue to deal with the "crisis", and gather power to themselves. The truth doesn't matter. And the whores in the scientific community will happily prostitute their research for the money and prestige.
Much is made about "Big Oil" money funding "denier" research, but Big Oil is a piker next to the gargantuan resourced that can be poured into science by governments. That is why I always laugh at the fools who accuse Exxon Mobile; why is government the holder of purer motives than an oil company? They have a lot more money, and the power of law, too. If you suspect Exxon-Mobile, you really should suspect the IPCC.
But you can't kid a kidder. The smarter of this group understands this fact, and the stupider of them will never understand.
In the end, science has become a call girl, a lady of the evening. Global Warming is the most egregious example, but there are plenty of others. We've had so many scares; alar, dioxin, mercury, now fracking for oil causing earthquakes. I could compose a list, but it would take up too much of our mutual time.
Whatever happened to the search for truth?
Two thousand years ago a government shill made the perfect case for post-modern scientific corruption. During the trial of Jesus Christ, Roman governor Pontius Pilate famously asked "what is truth?" It was not a question exactly, but a statement of moral relativism. Pilate, like government types before him and like his progeny into the present day, believed there is no such thing as Truth, but that all is relative to the observer. Truth is what the party says it is. If the Emperor said he had conquered Britain a half hour after leaving the city of Rome then he conquered Britain (Caligula, who pardoned Pilate after the death of Tiberius - who had recalled Pilate for a massacre of Samaritans - did that, going to the outskirts of the city and grabbing local farmers as "captured warriors". He then re-entered the city to a Triumph, with the public clamouring "all hail the Conqueror of Britain.) Governments don't like Truth, because it gets in the way of their actions. They prefer sweet lies, lies that can advance their agenda. Nothing has really changed.
And Britain, moribund by the welfare state, has more to gain and lose than most. The entire post-WWII era has been built on a lie in "Great" Britain, and deep down I suspect most people know that. These little socialist games they have played cannot be justified by reality, and nobody really believes this is an adequate substitute for the Britain of old, but the ruling class doesn't want the Britain of old, but rather a compliant, sheep-like people. They want Engsoc. They have to pretend to be that which they are not. And so science has to be corrupted to justify the continuation of the failed experiment that is Britain. Should their grip falter for one moment the public will howl "the Emperor has no clothes" and everything the socialists have built over 65 years will collapse. So new scares, new causes, new crises must be invented. Environmentalism is a big one, and Global Warming is her crown jewel.
Michael Crichton touched on this in his discussion of the "state of fear"; Crichton argued that the ruling classes in the West maintain their power by keeping the public lathered up with crises and fear-mongering. They have replaced the traditional controls of bygone eras; honor, faith, patriotism, with the culture of fear and crisis. The Universities and think tanks are the wombs of these endless panic attacks, hatching up crazier and crazier things for people to be frightened about. A symbiotic media takes up the cause, promoting the "science" to achieve political ends. Governments then take the ball, passing laws and organizing against emergencies that do not exist. The populace gets so frightened that people actually take their own lives in despair, yet the elites, the ruling classes, simply take it to the next level, or adopt the newest fright fest.
Western culture contains the seeds of it's own destruction. The Enlightenment puffed up the intellectuals, who have believed in their divine right to rule ever since. That reign comes from their official "expertise" and the reverence accorded them. That reverence stemmed from the value of what they were doing, of the miraculous wonders science and technology wrought. But now science is becoming degraded, a tool to the ruling class itself. I suspect we are reaching the peak in science, and will find in the future fewer and fewer breakthroughs as doctrine trumps Truth.
Nietzche believed that, and while I think Nietzche was an ass, I suspect he's right in this instance. Eventually science will question itself, become so cynical that it will no longer believe there is such a thing as truth. When that happens our civilization will be finished.
What is Truth? Increasingly, it is what the Party says it is.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:58 AM
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