This raw milk thread reminds me of some folks in the city being
persecuted because their gardens were a danger to public health. It
turns out that a city ordinance prohibits front yard vegetation over ten
inches in height. "Public health" is the justification behind this
interesting policy, but no specific hazards from said vegetation are
mentioned, so there is no way to remedy the hazards or demonstrate that
hazardous conditions do not, in fact, exist. These individuals were
apparently recklessly endangering public health by growing vegetables in
their own yards, willfully ignoring the pressing public health need to
have a monoculture of manicured grass in every place not yet paved. And
these vegetables did indeed attain a height of more than ten inches, in
clear violation of the protective statute.
So again we demonstrate an institutional inability to be anything other
than foolishly binary. Either 100% of us must drink raw milk (or no
milk at all because milk is, after all, a deadly poison) or we must ALL
drink pasteurized milk. Specific samples of raw milk from specific
infected individual animals have been identified as a source of
pathogens, therefore everybody must pasteurize, because the one thing we
cannot have is individuals making decisions about their own lives. The
option of having a small closed herd with every individual animal
verified free of disease, and selling within a limited geographical
region is not taken seriously, despite the scientific validity and the
physical possibility of this option. Yet "science" is used as the
justification for mandating specific management options which preclude
other scientifically valid management options for the same potential
problem.
I criticize one tiny SPECIFIC aspect of public health management, and I
get half a dozen responses telling me that brucellosis is really really
bad and so is TB, as if I have somehow suggested that we start spreading
them around as a matter of public policy. That's right, I would like to
be able to legally purchase certain farm products directly from specific
small farmers of my choosing; this is evidence that I really want to get
rid of the CDC altogether. Either I accept uncritically the status quo
or it's back to the dark ages. Either I must approve every single
solitary use of any technology no matter its purpose, or I'll be
portrayed in straw as an unscientific "luddite" who wants only to steal
the fruits of the enlightenment from all of humanity and hide them under
my bed. And of course everyone will be forced to do exactly what I do,
because we simply cannot imagine more than two insanely polar options.
It feels like I am trapped in a bad sci-fi film.
And I am wasting my time in graduate school, bothering to learn to
discriminate between fact and fiction, assumption and demonstration,
because no matter if I become more knowledgable and wise than the entire
National Academy of Science combined, I will still not be allowed to USE
that knowledge to make my life better in ways which matter to me. In
fact, above all, this will be the one thing I must never be allowed to
do. Because that would be different from what the majority of other
people do, and any time we see a trend toward innovation or independent
thought, we must swiftly act to crush it.
What an idealistic simpleton I have been. I actually believed the
speeches about how empowering higher education is. I cannot believe it
has taken me this long to fully grasp what we are up against. My more
cynical colleagues no doubt figured it out decades ago.
And I am supposed to be grateful that others are looking out for my best
interests, which they are certain cannot be determined by yours truly.
If I would just get out of the lab and watch more TV like other nice,
compliant citizens, perhaps I would begin to see the light.
wondering if my health plan covers anaesthetic lobotomy,
L. Muldowney
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