re: #34 LudwigVanQuixote

I wrote this last night in a convo with Ice, but I really think it fits here.

She commented on the way the wingnut side flips from claiming there is no problem, to assuming that if there is one science will just magically make a miracle happen before it is too late.

I replied (edited for typos and such)

Well that is the joy of being in science… You are an elitist egghead to be disrespected if the science you bring is inconvenient or unpopular, but the great scientist when you say something they want to hear or are needed - even if you are not a scientist at all!

It is the intellectual parallel on the low brow right to what the military is to the low brow left. The military is that horrible dog that you kick around in times of peace but are really happy for when needed.

God forbid that the scientist is smarter than you.. that rejects your comfortable sense of false superiority earned for free. But everyone begs the doctor and medical science at the end for a miracle. And everyone begs the scientist for one when they need one as well.

With AGW, we see the science world saying that if we blow it, we really have blown it, and there will be nothing we can do. The public can not accept that… American ingenuity, which is different from science of course, will always win out.

“Those eggheads will figure it out for us… That is why we hire them.”

Damn I am reminded of Mozart quipping about eating with the servants below the butler, but above the salt.

Scientists take this lying down as well. We are taught not to be arrogant or proud. It is shameful to be too smart. We should be good little dogs in our proper places and serve the real masters of the universe who got MBAs and other such degrees. I for one am totally sick of it.

We do something that most of the world can not do because of our talents. I do not begrudge the Olympic swimmer for being able to swim past me like a torpedo. No one should begrudge the scientist for actually being smarter and better educated - as well as actually trained to figure new things out.

I am not saying scientists are saints, but the wingnut world vacillates between discounting science and then expecting us to do miracles. It is always on demand like a good puppy. Well this dog has told you the score.

Ludwig,

The sad fact of the matter is, nothing is going to be done in any serious regards to try to prevent or reverse AGW. And the reason why? Humanity, by and large, is generally apathetic unless its going to affect them personally RIGHT NOW. Once you say that by 2100 people are going to go “Well, I’ll be dead by then, so I don’t care.” You can ring the alarm bells and show them all the data, but unless the Pacific Ocean is bearing down on their house, they won’t care.