Trump Primer 2: Deconstructing Government Goes Along with Trying to Silence Science

Talk about timing. Last post, I talked about the Trump administration having no idea of how bureaucracies work. What I really meant was that they have no idea of how human beings work. I see that as a flaw. They may not, and if they don't, then they are flying in the face of thousands of years of human experience in governing. Their learning curve is going to be ugly because I can't think of any society where there hasn't been some form of political/judicial structure. Cheats and other criminals have ever been among us.

Among the largest early bureaucracies, of course, was the Church which took up political administration because secular powers were constantly at war. Somebody had to tell misbehaving humans that adultery and theft were not good ideas and, more important, have some pretense at enforcing the laws even if it was just the threat of ex-communication. Knighthood, for example, was cooked up to distract unemployed younger aristocratic sons from tearing up the countryside and disrupting the local economy.

Unfortunately, this early crusading Church civilized people at great cost because along with an enforced theology, it imposed a dangerous anti-scientific orthodoxy, not least because intellectuals tended to question the authenticity of the Church's founding documents. The Church was not about to dilute its power by permitting heretical science to proliferate. The result is still with us: a schizophrenic lip service paid to something called God's will, a taste for absolutes, and some of the most outrageous hypocrisy I have seen.

So, what does this history say about the current power brokers in Washington DC?
By trying to destroy government, I believe that the  true believers (TBs) fail to acknowledge its legitimate role in protecting us from one another. And by allowing ideology to trump science as it has, they remove the rational basis for decision making. I am waiting to hear a reprise chorus of  "pointy headed intellectuals in ivory towers, " but I for one would not fancy space travel in a craft constructed according to Elijah's descriptions.

Yet, here we are making major political decisions based on unsupported theoretical beliefs about human behavior. Will absolute freedom make us responsible and independent? Or will it just encourage the selfish and greedy?  Stay tuned.

Today the Congressional Budget Office told us that many millions of people will lose health insurance under the proposed conservative health care act. That's what most of us believe, but what do the TBs do? Instead of looking at the data scientifically, they try to discredit its findings. The 16th Century Church would have been proud of them and would probably have encouraged them to refer the staff of the budget office to the Holy Inquisition.

All this might be somewhat understandable if TBs really believed that science was the enemy. But they don't and here lies the hypocrisy.  They all have health insurance and expect to have their blood pressure treated with something other than leeches. I guess it all depends on whose ox is being gored.

So--here is my warning to TBS:

Take down the EPA and enjoy contaminated drinking water. Remember when water from the Great Lake system came out of the tap with a head of liquid soap foam? 

Take down the FDA and expect more e-coli outbreaks and chemical manipulation of food because someone will always try to make an extra buck.

Take down the DEA and watch out for something like thalidomide. US babies were saved from that because the DEA was slow to approve. Europe was not so lucky.

Take down the SEC and regulations and watch Wall Street go back to the profitable and destructive investments it wallowed in.

Remove the DOE and turn education over to for-profits and watch the ballooning of for-profit institutions that take public money and refuse to be held accountable.

Take down the National Park Service and watch the billboards come up as the parks are made to pay for themselves.

Take down insurance regulators and watch what happens when there is another national disaster. You want a settlement? You'll have to take them to court, if you can afford to. 

My take on all this:  If you want to live in the Wild West, then don't expect cancer treatments, laser surgery, emergency rooms, space exploration, smart phones, and computers. Make your own guns and ammunition and don't call 911 if you are shot: dig your own bullet out. I expect to find you living in tepees, raising your own food (not buying seeds), relying on horses for transportation, and driving cattle to markets in Chicago (railways are technology and science, Chums).

I could go on, but will end by suggesting that TBs stop accusing science of being something it is not. Science does not operate in absolutes. Absolutes are the province of religion. Science moves forward by disproving what is known and then finding new ways of addressing the problem. Aren't you always asking for the "latest" treatments for whatever ails you?

At the same time, they might learn what government does and why it does it. You can count me among the cynics, although I prefer to think of myself as someone who has read history and learned from it. Destroying government simply because you don't like all of it, means destroying life as we know it and turning us all out into a Hobbesian world where life is "nasty, brutish, and short."