First of all, friends, I warn you ahead of time that I am not, at
present, suffering privileged people lightly. Not that I ever do, but
about four hours ago I saw a Lexus-driving, gold-watch-wearing, buff,
tanned, soft-handed, thirtysomething white boy blaat his horn, shake
his fist and cuss at a weary, worn man pushing a shopping cart full
of all his worldly possessions at 16th and Mission here in San
Francisco. The man had the temerity to cross the street on a green
light ahead of Lexus Boy, who was trying to blow thru the
intersection on a dead red. It was only my lack of a
handlebar-mounted laser-rocket launcher that prevented me from using
it. But I digress.
Regarding the current SANET discussion on the American Council on
Science and Health--check out the list of "Scientific and policy
advisors" for this organization.
http://www.acsh.org/about/advisors.html
It includes such populist sympathizers and scientific luminaries as
Earl Butz, Michael Pariza (UW), and Dr. Hard Science himself, Dennis
"Contrarian" Avery. Uh, you can decide who belongs in which category.
:^]
Big money is just part of the picture, Bunny. What we're seeing here
is a world view that puts assertion of a particular investigative
methodology ahead of everything, including the ability to ask
original questions, to observe without prejudice, to learn from
history, and to listen to the dictates of common sense. (Common
sense? Did I say common sense? Dang ol ghost of Tom Paine must be
waltzin' thru the Sunset District, on his way from the Rapidly
Gentrifying Mission to some free trade-ista sweatshop on the other
side of the Pacific.)
Anyhow, if you'd like to see what this particular alignment of
beliefs can do with a hefty communications budget, see ACSH's
publications list:
http://www.acsh.org/publications/index.html
In brief, if there's a technology assessment issue where anyone has
questioned industry in any form, or expressed concerns about a
technology's effects on people, ACSH fosters and communicates the
research that favors industry. I have no doubt whatever that,
strictly speaking, on the turf upon which they stand to argue the
Scientific Truth, and the Balance of Research-Based Facts, they are
probably not wrong in their assertions. They've got the research to
back their viewpoints up. And the money to sift, winnow, and
communicate it.
From a public interest research perspective, it's a nifty scam--uh,
stance: one can always challenge the poorly funded questioners of
technology to come up with a similar retinue of research to the
private-sector and university researchers'. ("Yah? Well PROVE IT
according to the ways WE say, nyeah!!!") Public interest research
isn't exactly pulling down the big bucks lately. And even where some
well-organized folks manage to squeeze these public interest projects
thru the millstones of funding, peer review, and publication, it can
always be argued that they didn't *counterprove* exactly what the big
guns proved.
Thus leading to *more* research by the well-funded researchers, to
research the researchable researched researches, and re-researching
the re-researched re-researches. Like the legendary foo-foo bird
which flies in ever-smaller circles till it disappears up its own....
But I digress yet again.
Well heck, it's not a bad way to earn a living--whether asserting the
appropriate departymental line within the Ed Biz or serving as one of
the managerial staff of the Knowledge Factory. After all, it costs a
few bucks, being and staying an educated and privileged white person
in the USA.
:^]
I've gotta stop reading /The Progressive Populist/. It makes me so dang cranky.
http://www.eden.com/~reporter/index.html
'^D :^>
Reporting live from the cradle of Biotechnology and the Internet, and
the frontier of the biggest Class War in US history, with a supper of
California fruit (figs, plums, and apricots) and Wisconsin cheese in
front of me (un-aged cow asiago and Cedar Grove garlic curds), I
remain your never terribly humble correspondent, and grateful as
always for the farmers who filled my plate.
peace
misha
Michele Gale-Sinex
Communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison
http://www.wisc.edu
UW voice mail: 608-262-8018
Home office: 415-504-6474 (504-MISH)
Home office fax: Same as above, phone first for enabling
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical
barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life. --Rachel Carson
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