As a writer, I love words.  Sometimes I love a particular word because it’s mysterious.  “Eldritch” is an example.  You can understand its meaning from context when you combine it with “light”—it just looks spooky and sinister.  Because English is spoken in so many places, an author can give local color to his prose by choosing particular words (often not consciously).  I love the sound of “scarpered”—it just sounds like someone in a hurry to leave town.  When my beta-reader knew what it meant but still objected to its use in one of my books, I went on a search to find out how I’d picked it up.  Turns out it’s very UK-ish—sort of like “forthwith” and other words where I love how they trip off the tongue.  I’d picked it up from Ian Rankin (love his Inspector Rebus books), so my beta-reader was right and made a good catch.  Unless it occurs in dialog associated with a character who’s from the UK, or who’s trying to sound like a person from the UK, it isn’t quite appropriate in American prose.  Still love the sound, though.

“Troglodyte” is a word that looks and sounds good too.  It’s a fun word.  If I remember correctly, it originally means “cave dweller.”  (The origins of English are well mapped out in David Crystal’s The Stories of English—a lot of fun if you’re into that kind of thing.)  The word is more conventionally used to mean “deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.”  Ergo, this long segue is just leading up to my main topic: There are anti-science troglodytes among us who are challenging science with their far-out beliefs and attacking scientific progress at all levels, some even funding campaigns against science.  Ironically, many of these same troglodytes are using science and technology as tools to further their anti-scientific agendas.

A benign case of this can be found in beliefs in astrology, crystals with mysterious powers, ineffective and possibly damaging use of herbs and potions, wearing garlic around your neck, and so forth.  There are industries that feed off these false credos, wasting people’s time and money, if not damaging their health (I found a recent fad involving IV B12 and other infusions very disturbing).  But this benign case already illustrates one source of the problem.  Some people are gullible and stupid.  “I have a sure cure for your arthritis” is answered by “Tell me about it!”  “I have this great diet where you can lose 30 pounds in ten days” is followed by “Give it to me!”  No questions asked.  The beliefs spread like a social contagion among the population.  Some infirmities can become chronic, for example, so gullible people will try anything in their search for relief.  But if you’re guilty of swallowing this load of crap, you’re an anti-science troglodyte (and maybe able to swallow anything).

That doesn’t mean that scientists (in this case, the artisans, our medical doctors, today’s shamans) know all the answers.  For one thing, it’s impossible for them to be up on all the studies (maybe that’s why so few medical students become internists nowadays—generalists have to have a wider breadth of knowledge than specialists, the former something medical schools now discourage).  A simple example illustrates the point.  Many cardiologists will prescribe a statin drug to lower cholesterol.  Studies have shown that these drugs can do more than that.  If combined with the enzyme CoQ-10, they can prevent the wounds in the arteries where the cholesterol tends to accumulate.  This isn’t widely publicized (many doctors pooh-pooh vitamin supplements; in their defense, medical schools don’t have many courses on nutrition either).  By the way, don’t take my word about CoQ-10.  Look it up.

What you’re doing when you look up the benefits of statins combined with CoQ-10 is science!  Putting a crystal or garlic around your neck, not so much.  In fact, looking things up illustrates a necessary counterforce to being a troglodyte, a counterforce we’re too often neglecting in America.  It used to be that everyone—I mean everyone—was interested in how things work.  (This can be filed under the euphemism “yankee ingenuity” and is why the original colonies, especially Massachusetts, paid so much attention to educating the young.)  The ancient and very logical Greeks invented a whole mythology to explain things, along with their mathematical and scientific discoveries.  We have progressed from that to computers, smart phones, robots, RPVs, hybrid cars, the internet, and Mars Rovers because the curiosity of common people was driving progress.  Advances in the physical sciences dominated the last century, but the discovery of DNA launched the advances in biological science and genetics we are seeing now.  Do you keep up?

It seems that the scientific curiosity of common people is rapidly disappearing, in fact—worse, it’s being replaced by superstitions and anti-science.  One pundit has called us “technological savages.”  We use technology but we’re no longer curious about it.  I think “savages” is a little strong, except maybe for ISIS.  Many people who are anti-science aren’t violent and they aren’t savages—they’re troglodytes.  I’m guilty of this myself.  For various reasons, I don’t have a smart phone.  I don’t play video games.  I don’t watch that much TV, especially streaming video on strange devices.  My laptop is used for writing, period.

However, I worked on the cutting edge of R&D for many years.  I probably understand more about what’s going on than most people, even now that I write full-time.  I’m also still curious.  When my copy of Science News arrives, I usually sit down and read the whole thing.  That’s something everyone could do.  Leonard’s TV girlfriend, Penny, a few nights ago asked, “Who reads Scientific American?”  Good question.  Who reads the NY Times’ science section on Tuesdays (one of the few objective sections of the newspaper)?  Another good question.  Not the troglodytes, of course.

The worst group of troglodytes can be found among our government policy makers, especially senators and representatives.  From born-agains with their belief that the Earth was created 6000 years ago to corporate sycophants with an agenda that ignores evidence about global warming, we have 500+ troglodytes sitting in the hallowed halls of Congress.  Rush Holt, a physicist and former NJ Dem in the House, who recently retired from Congress to head up the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), must have experienced many years of frustration with these bozos, both Dems and Republicans.  In a recent interview, he said: “Although members of Congress are smart [?] and generally well-educated [?], their appreciation and understanding of science is not good [!].”  Ignore the fact that Mr. Holt contradicts himself in that one sentence—in his working life he was surrounded by troglodytes, so their lack of reason and logic was probably contagious.

Mr. Holt goes on: “The current majority in Congress wants to almost entirely remove science from the advisory and regulatory process.”  Gee, I wonder what current majority he’s referring to?  The GOP doesn’t have a monopoly on the troglodyte phenomena, but they’re subservient to lobbying and political action groups that push a troglodyte agenda as a means to further corporate America’s attack on the environment.  Perhaps Mr. Holt saw the handwriting on the wall and wanted nothing more to do with these government troglodytes (here the image of knuckle-dragging cave men and women is perhaps appropriate, even though one dandy, dapper, and well-tanned one belies that hairy image).

Science is attacked at all levels.  Some people are just duped into being troglodytes.  Others are being troglodytes because it serves their agendas.  Whatever the causes, the anti-science attitude in this country isn’t healthy, to say the least.  Science and technology pave the different highways to human progress.  You can kill your natural human curiosity and become just an ignorant user, but you run the risk of denying your humanity.  We are human beings because we are, or were, the most curious animals on the planet (curious in both senses, if you like).  The terrorists of ISIS would have us return to a 13^th century Caliphate.  We need to push scientific and technological progress into the 21^st century and beyond instead.

Even our educators are becoming troglodytes.  As Holt says, “We got science included in the subjects emphasized by federal law.  But we haven’t improved teacher professional development and other things we need to do.”  I’d go farther.  Too many Boards of Education are filled with troglodytes and encourage the teachers to be ones too (of course, many do so willingly—they don’t need the encouragement).  When a Board approves rewriting history or gives creationism and intelligent design equal time with Darwinian evolution, they’re doing a lot more than pushing their own politics and belief systems—they’re traitors to America’ spirit of intellectual inquiry who will make this country a laughing stock as well as send it into irrelevancy on the world stage.  Down with the troglodytes!

[The quotes here are taken from: “From Congress to AAAS, Rush Holt reflects on science policy.” Physics Today, March 15, p. 22.  Most people don’t have access to this, but maybe you can find it online.]

And so it goes….

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