
Imagine a country where a major political party actively campaigns on a de facto religious platform. Imagine, during the leadership contest for that party, many of the candidates publicly denounce the scientific theory of evolution and turn, instead, to a holy book that they believe holds all the answers. Imagine, too, that the party denies scientific consensus over the scientific reality of global warming. Then, imagine that party being outraged at religious liberties being extended to minority groups residing in the country. This party would, of course, look skeptically at things such as women’s rights, sex education and contraception. Its position on gay rights need not be stated, as it is too obvious.
From which country would this party be? Pakistan, you might say. Iran might also be a contender. Egypt, with its recent election of a member of the Muslim Brotherhood to the presidency there, might also be on your mind. Saudi Arabia would be an obvious choice if it weren’t for the fact that there are no political parties there – just an absolutist monarchy working in conjunction with hardline religious fundamentalists.
You would not naturally think of the United States, yet the current Republican Party has done exactly the things just described. During a televised GOP debate leading up to the 2008 presidential election, for instance, only a tiny minority of the competing Republican candidates admitted they believed in evolution. During the 2012 nomination contest, John Huntsman of Utah was ridiculed by his party for believing, as most scientists do, that evolution is real and that man-made global warming is a problem. He noted:
“The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.”
And yet, by all accounts, this is exactly what has happened to Huntsman’s party. On issue after issue, conservatives deny the validity of scientific research in favor of preconceived ideological positions that are supported regardless of what scientific research says. OECD numbers state America’s healthcare system is the most inefficient of all the developed countries? Lies. Global warming is real and documented by all climatologists? A conspiracy propagated by eco-communists. Abstinence-only education does little to prevent teen pregnancy? Doesn’t matter when we are talking about Godly morality and traditional values.
For those steeped in the ideals of reason and scientific objectivity wrought by the Enlightenment, such attitudes seem archaic throwbacks to a time in our history when the dead hands of superstition and tradition kept society firmly in its iron grip. Science, the only effective device we have to discover objective truth about the world, is the tool we now use to discern what is or is not real, not tired dogmas and dated cultural shibboleths. For those coming from this worldview of enlightenment, science tells us what is while our values determine what should be once reality, whatever it may be, has been discovered and understood by science. Or, at least that is how it is supposed to work.
Unfortunately, for an increasing number of conservatives, what the scientific method discovers reality to be is increasingly at odds with what they believe should be, setting the stage for dramatic displays of scientific ignorance and anti-intellectualism that now permeates Republican politics and conservative culture. In response, conservatives have given ground only grudgingly. Conservatives, for instance, held on stubbornly to scientific racism, even as science, in the late 20th century, conclusively demonstrated through genetic analysis that our differences are literally only skin deep. Science teaches that humanity is one giant family – not a hodgepodge of biologically distinct nations constantly at odds with one another. Indeed, in a modern country like the U.S., we are likely more genetically related to someone on the opposite end of the Earth than we are to our next-door neighbor. For those whose worldview and identity are premised on inherent differences between us and them, acknowledging the reality that them is us and us is them is not just disturbing, it is frightening in the extreme.
Or, instead of giving ground only slowly under the weight or logic and empiricism, they attack science directly, often in conjunction with corporate paymasters who stand to lose trillions if scientific reality is acknowledged and acted upon. This has been the strategy used since the 1950s on a number of issues ranging from tobacco use to acid rain, environmental toxins, nuclear winter and, now, anthropogenic climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. As documented superbly in the book “Merchants of Doubt,” corporate America and the conservative establishment have and continue to use obfuscation, well-funded PR and outright lies to undermine public trust in scientific research, delaying action for decades.
And this successful attack on science has taken place in the hard, physical sciences where experiments can actually be done to demonstrate physical relationships between, say, smoking and cancer. In the social sciences, where it is much more difficult to prove anything conclusively due to the inability to conduct experiments on a large scale, conservatives have destroyed any attempt to use scholarly research in ways that seriously challenge conservative beliefs. Economics is a case in point, where the false assumptions and failed hypothesis of the perfectly-competitive free market is resurrected again and again to justify disastrous social and economic policies of the type that led to the 2008 financial crisis. For conservatives, it is always damn the evidence, full speed ahead!
This antipathy to science, research and the reality they reveal has, in turn, created a party that is increasingly at odds with education, scientists and intellectuals. The GOP, which dominated among voters who were educated professionals with graduate degrees in the 1980s, has largely abandoned them. If the party has a popular base today, the GOP is the party of the uneducated, religious, white working and middle classes who are, in turn, lead by wealthy corporate elites who use propaganda to denigrate science, education and intellectualism. They are, in short, the party of Idiocracy. Only in such a party could George W. Bush be elected president, Sarah Palin be considered a rock star or Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum be thought of as serious contenders for high office.
As Orwell taught us, keeping track of what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle. In the battle between belief and reality, our very psychological makeup constantly sabotages our thinking to make us less rational and more biased toward what we want to believe is true as opposed to what is actually true. Science, for all its faults, is the only tool we have that can, as a system, determine what reality actually consists of. It often takes time and considerable effort, as the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson attests, but it provides us with enough real insight to light up our cities, extend our lifespans, communicate instantly over vast differences and fly us to the moon, the planets and the very edge of our solar system. It is, in the end, the sole reason we have come as far as we have as a species in such a short amount of time. It is the reason you are reading this today and not scratching at the dirt for something to eat. It is, in short, the fuel of progress.
Which is why it is so terrifying that one half of the political system in the most powerful country in the world wants to abandon it altogether. Disaster cannot help but follow when you empty the gas tank of progress and fill it instead with the empty promises of belief, faith and raging unreason. Indeed, it already has.