America's Science Problem

Glad you straightened things out. I thought your user name meant you were a little kid from Marietta and moved to Tempe.

When I was growing up about (cough) years ago there was a major push for science at all levels.We had sputnik and the beginnings of the space race; we had three TV channels; we had the draft, and coming off of WWII we had a sense of being one nation; and we had the science fiction, then becoming mainstream, of Heinlein, Clark, and Asimov.This has been replaced some 50 years later by multiculturalism, 500+ TV channels, a volunteer military, and the internet.For better or worse, the national attention is no longer focused on a limited number of goals, nor upon the nation as a whole. We have truly Balkanized ourselves.When everyone marches to a different drummer, it's darn hard to have a good parade.Science is just one of the casualties of this process.

Oh, right. I was wondering why it was. Now I know. It's because of "multiculturalism", the absence of the military draft and ... too many TV channels?And there I was thinking that it was because conservatives wage a perpetual war on science. How wrong I was. It's because there are too many TV channels. Of course. How very stupid of me not to have seen that.

While I definitely have to agree with your quote about the Conservative War on Science (what is with those guys and Wars on things, i.e.-science, terror, drugs...), I do have to say that while the number of channels is not influential on the education in the country it may have something to do with what networks are choosing to occupy that television time with. I think that Neil Degrasse Tyson said it best on Twitter recently when he stated, "America 2012: The Learning Channel has Honey Boo Boo, History Channel has Cajun Pawn Stars, and the Science Channel has Punkin Chunkin." -NDT-These are channels that were created originally to actually give information and educational programming a way to reach viewers and hopefully educate the public in some scientific/historical matters. However, recently they have been showing these shows or shows (such as that recent Discovery show on mermaids) that are completely false and still being portrayed as being a documentary. I think that this dumbing down of "educational" television combined with the current religious/political (cause let's face it, it is not all conservatives that are at war with science) battle with science is creating a detrimental effect where individuals want to simply believe what they see and critical thinking is disappearing. Not all critical thinking of course and the internet helps allow those who are willing to search to find good information still. Edited by Tempe 12ft Chicken, : added word "historical"Edited by Tempe 12ft Chicken, : To clarify the last statement...

That sounds about right, I reckon.I would add that the 'Party' uses focus groups and the like to position themselves to have the maximum traction with the voters.So ideally you want Mr/s charisma who stands for issues the market researchers have identified as unifying. If you keep repositioning the Party line to follow the zeitgeist you can be sure to get the votes.Rather than the voters voting for a candidate among a group of candidates all standing for something different the Party selects a candidate who stands for what the Party knows the public want.In a sense the Party has no firm identity: it follows the market research and puts someone hopefully acceptable as the face of the Party.I know that sounds cynical and a gross generalisation but look how the GOP has positioned itself to conform to the Fundamentalist ideology and how the Dems are more right wing than they were 20 years ago.I would also suggest that this sets up a positive feedback loop where the zeitgeist is reinforced by the 'Party' and the 'Party' becomes a more and more extreme expression of the zeitgeist to vacuum up more votes.Sort of like the GOP representatives trying to 'out fundy' each other.I worry that a potentially great nation like the US with so many positive traits will spiral into a far right wing nation.

That is a reasonable fear; perhaps even a probable outcome and of course it has happened many times before.Germany.Italy.Russia.China.Cambodia.Greece.France.Indochina.Columbia.Cuba.Argentina,Venezuela.Burma.Today's GOP would be unthinkable and abhorrent to Goldwater, Nixon, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, Taft ...

What? You mean you never would have predicted that America was great?or how 'bout a little of this?or this?We're fine, thank you very much.- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

I was watching "Deep Space 9" when I read your reply. Just as I saw that "Keeping up with the Kardashians", someone on the TV mentioned the Cardassians. And suddenly a lot of things started making sense. Except now there's a new mystery: where did they all get their neck jobs?