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Textbooks present science
as a noble search for truth, in which progress depends on questioning
established ideas. But for many scientists, this is a cruel myth. They know
from bitter experience that disagreeing with the dominant view is dangerous
-- especially when that view is backed by powerful interest groups. Call it
suppression of intellectual dissent. The usual pattern is that someone does
research or speaks out in a way that threatens a powerful interest group,
typically a government, industry or professional body. As a result,
representatives of that group attack the critic's ideas or the critic
personally--by censoring writing, blocking publications, denying
appointments or promotions, withdrawing research grants, taking legal
actions, harassing, blacklisting, spreading rumors.
Dr. Melvin Reuber
worked at the Frederick Cancer Research Facility in Maryland studying links
between pesticides and cancer. A highly productive scientist, he says he
regularly earned glowing performance reports. In 1981 he received a scathing
report. The bulk of it found its way into Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, a
trade magazine for the petrochemical industry. The item was circulated
around the world and used to discredit Reuber wherever his findings were
cited to question the safety of pesticides.
The expression of
dissenting views may not seem like much of a threat to a powerful
organization, yet sometimes it triggers an amazingly hostile response. The
reason is that a single dissenter can puncture an illusion of unanimity.
Perhaps nowhere is the facade of unanimity stronger than in the debate over
fluoridating public drinking water to prevent dental caries. Proponents of
the practice roundly deny that there is any debate, much less reason for
one, at all.
Dr. John Colquhoun, a
New Zealand dentist and dental administrator, had long supported
fluoridation. But in 1980 he took a world trip to study the issue and
subsequently changed his mind. After he was quoted in a newspaper warning
parents not to let their young children swallow too much fluoridated
toothpaste, Colquhoun received a letter from the New Zealand Health
Department. It said that if he could not adhere to official policy
recommending the use of fluoride toothpaste by young children, one option
was to resign. No further action was taken against him.
Those who launch the
attacks explain everything from censorship to dismissal on the ground of
poor performance by the person concerned. No one admits to suppressing
dissent. And indeed, there is no way to be absolutely sure that
suppression has occurred. But there are some good indicators. One is the
double-standard test: is similar treatment given to other scientists who
have similar levels of performance? In typical suppression cases, other
scientists with equal or lesser records are not attacked. They didn't rock
the boat.
But dramatic cases of
transfers and dismissals give a misleading impression of patterns of
suppression. The most common tactics are probably to block publications or
appointments. These are incredibly difficult to document.
How frequent is
suppression? No one has done a systematic survey. But having studied this
issue for the past decade and a half, it is my experience that the problem
is much more pervasive than most people realize. There's a sustained pattern
of suppression in some areas, such as nuclear power, fluoridation,
pesticides and forestry.
Dr. Hugh DeWitt is a
theoretical physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a
nuclear-weapons lab. DeWitt has long been a critic of aspects of U.S.
nuclear weapons policy. In 1979 he filed affidavits in support of The
Progressive, a magazine about to publish information on the workings of the
hydrogen bomb -- obtained from public sources like encyclopedias -- when the
federal government sought an injunction. The lab placed a letter of warning
in DeWitt's personnel file. After scientific organizations came to his
defense, De Witt reached a settlement with the lab, and in 1980 the letter
was removed from his file.
One often-advocated
solution to the problem of suppression is whistle-blower legislation, which
is said to support those who speak out in the public interest. The reality
is not so wonderful. It covers only limited forms of retaliation--not
blocking publications or spreading rumors, for instance. Indeed, the focus
on whistle-blowing gives the illusion that most attacks on dissent take the
form of attacks on whistle-blowers. This is much too narrow a perspective.
Furthermore, experience shows that only a small fraction of complaints are
taken up and an even smaller fraction are vindicated, due more to a lack of
enthusiasm for defending whistle-blowers than to a shortage of worthy cases.
Dr. John Coulter was a
medical researcher at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in
Adelaide, South Australia, from 1969 to 1980. An outspoken environmentalist,
he aroused the wrath of a number of chemical companies owing to his
comments, made in his "private capacity," about their products. In 1980 he
tested a chemical used to sterilize equipment at the institute and found
that it could cause mutations in bacteria. He released his report to the
workers as well as to the official committee. Soon after, Coulter was
dismissed from his post. He later became a prominent Australian politician.
Suppression of
intellectual dissent can inflict large costs on society. Among those
suppressed have been the engineers who tried to point out problems with the
Challenger space shuttle that caused it to blow up. More fundamentally,
suppression is a denial of the open dialogue and debate that are the
foundation of a free society. Even worse than the silencing of dissidents is
the chilling effect such practices have on others. For every individual who
speaks out, numerous others decide to play it safe and keep quiet. More
serious than external censorship is the problem of self-censorship.
What can a scientist do to
fight intellectual suppression? Use official channels only if your case is
cut and dried. Otherwise they are likely to drain your energy without
yielding the desired result. For similar reasons, legal channels are seldom
fruitful: suppression is difficult to prove in court. A publicity campaign,
on the other hand, can be effective. This might involve sympathizers writing
letters to an organization, circulating a petition or getting stories into
the media. Look for allies, including other dissidents, civil libertarians
and social activists. The best chance of challenging suppression lies in
mobilizing support from those who believe that your point of view deserves
to be heard.
The existence of
suppression of dissent as a pervasive feature of science calls for a
reconceptualization of the enterprise. Rather than being solely a search for
the truth, science is closely bound up with the exercise of power. This is
normally acknowledged for totalitarian regimes and for military
dictatorships, where intellectual suppression is overt. But the same sorts
of processes occur, usually in a more subtle fashion, in liberal
democracies. From Copernicus to Darwin to Einstein, as well as countless
others who have challenged the conventional wisdom, it has been the
dissidents, the outsiders, the contrarians who have spurred science on. We
should protect and encourage dissent, even when we disagree with the
dissidents.
Brian Martin is in the
Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Wollongong,
Australia.
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/93nw.html
History of Banking Fraud:
The Coming Battle
By M. W. WALBERT
The Coming Battle
documents from Congressional records, newspaper reports and writings by
the founding fathers and others a chronology of events long forgotten that
shaped our fledgling nation from 1776 to 1899. Read about the manipulation
of our money and its supply, the intentional creation of recessions,
depressions and panics, manipulation of the stock markets, and the
demonetization of silver.
Secrets of the Federal Reserve
by Eustace Mullins
Eustace Mullins' carefully
researched and documented treatise picks up from Walbert's expose' of
control of the money supply and the economy and
brings it to the mid 1980's.
The
World Order
How control of the world's money has inexorably led to an ever tighter
grip on control of the world's people.
Uranium Wars by Leuren Moret
How control of the world's people has inexorably led to wider use of
depopulation methods which include spreading radioactivity in food,
water, air, and the human genome.
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by Allen Aslan Heart
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Debt Collection Puts on a
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A New Beginning: A
Practical Course in Miracles
Drug Smuggling Is Another Way that the Money Powers
Have Profited from Control of Government
Why Taxes Are Not Necessary
Income Taxes are Cartoon Images of the Law
Hidden Truth about Income Taxes
Stopping an IRS Audit with 32 questions
Social Security Number and W-4
Recording a Notice of Lien as a Lien
Agent Reveals IRS is a Fraud
The Mandrake Mechanism
Canadian Class Action Charging Illegal Creation of Money
Judge Martin Mahoney on the Federal Reserve
JFK and Executive Order 11110
CAFRs Are the True State of the State, Not Budgets
Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports Expose Fraud -
2
Bank Fraud was exposed in Minnesota by one incorruptible Judge and an honest Jury of Peers
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© 2007, Allen Aslan Heart / White Eagle Soaring of the Little Shell Pembina Band, a
Treaty
Tribe of the Ojibwe Nation
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