Al Gore’s media critique, Assault on Reason, excerpted in Time, lays a healthy dose of blame for our society’s apparent inability to exercise reason at the foot of television.
Clearly, at least to some degree, the “consent of the governed” was becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder. To the extent that money and the clever use of electronic mass media could be used to manipulate the outcome of elections, the role of reason began to diminish.
Well, yeah, I’m sure that commercial television advertising promotes something other than the truth. Advertising budgets undoubtedly have a corrosive effect on news media that get their paychecks from said advertisers. A large industry with plenty of money can influence editorial decisions in the newsroom.
But I don’t think television bears the rap alone. I think the Defenders of Reason need to shoulder their share in the demise of rational thought. It seems to me that Science, along with its media mouthpiece, is failing miserably at presenting a clear, comprehensible and unequivocal picture of the world. You can sum up the whole of modern scientific thought in just four words: “more research is needed.”
Somewhere between “better living through chemistry” and “the miracles of science” we’ve lost our faith in anyone clad in a lab coat. And for good reason. Consider all the years that you’ve read about research telling us that sunscreen prevents cancer. Suddenly, in a kind of mad teaparty change of seating, scientists tell us that sunscreen increases risk of cancer. I mean, honestly, WTF?
My sense is that scientific empiricism has run its course. The men and women with the test tubes can do wonders with specific engineering tasks, such as how to communicate genetic material to a corn rhizome. But they can’t do squat when it comes to interpreting the bigger picture of the world. All they seem to be able to say in their own defense is “more research is needed.”