We are in an era of know-nothingness. There are stupid-heads out there that astonish us with their petulant refusal to face reality. Rejecting scientific fact, making shit up, and lying through their teeth about global warming, public policy, news events and whatever they just don’t like. We can group them together into the Republican party and dismiss them, and that feels right to those of us who are liberals, believe in science and are suspect of faith. 

Well, I’m not anti-science, and certainly not religious, but there’s more going on here than just a political movement of high-school dropouts funded by rich guys. 

I actually sympathize with those ignoramuses. I am overwhelmed by information and don’t really want to deal with any of it. Some days I don’t know what to think about any given subject, there are so many competing claims on tv, npr and the internet. It is actually an act of faith to choose one side of an argument and stick to it. 

Remember college philosophy classes and Existentialism, so popular back in the 60s & 70s? (does anyone claim to be a philosopher these days? I think economists are the new philosophers.) Existentialism seems so appropriate in this technological age, where the internet supplies 10,000 answers to any question you might ask. Knowledge is Chaos, and you have to take that leap of faith to continue to believe in the value of life versus the value of commerce, goodness versus the bottom line, caring for people versus the deficit. Either side can mount “experts” with facts and figures and both sides massage those figures to get our votes. 

 Medical research is already dominated by Big Pharma and has been for some time. Any scientific study can be bought these days, so that muddies the standards of Science as a body of proven fact. People who dare to question the safety of childhood inoculations are lambasted in the media, but really, we don’t know the truth of what goes into those shots and what the medical corporations are willing to do to protect their profits. Big energy, insurance and chemical companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on tv ads convincing us of the purity of their intentions and the truth of their findings, and lots of people are convinced. And why not? They saw it on tv. They are choosing the well-produced and well-financed explanation, rather than the well-researched one. 

Why would these corporations prefer to spend all that money on image ads and lobbyists rather than just being good citizens (since apparently they ARE citizens) and accept scientific fact and change their business model accordingly. Because they have made their choice of facts, that the benefits of the stockholders outweighs science. And there is a whole political party, (not to mention a large number on the other side,) that agree with them that Money trumps Science. I have read plenty of Facebook posts, swearing that corporations aren’t evil, that business should get plenty of leeway, and that we would rather have jobs than some obscure endangered species. 

Of course, it’s becoming more clear that humans are the next endangered species, but oddly enough, since those are just a set of facts among many, and open to interpretation, that can be ignored til the flood waters are up to our necks and the protesters are breaking in our windows. And well beyond.

When the medical malpractice insurance started to rise in cost, and the doctors began to cover their asses to save on those premiums, there was a push to have the patients make decisions on care directions. Which chemo to take, which operation to have, to cut or not to cut. That way, doctors wouldn’t be liable for unfortunate outcomes. My mother was one of those patients, and even though we had the internet to search for information, it was overwhelming, obtuse and contradictory. We had to shut our eyes, point to the screen and hope for the best. I remember thinking that was as good as using astrology or asking your dog or cat for advice. A thousand monkeys with typewriters, churning out medical advice. The lowest common denominator of healthcare. 

In a way, that’s where we are today with government and the economy. We are given no real facts with no real background information or the means to understand it, but we still have the job of figuring out the right person with the right policy. Anyone who seems to give out real information (Paul Krugman, for example) is marginalized and has no influence. We are stuck with slogans and soundbytes and have to guess at what our options are. It’s highly ironic that the media talking heads (and a lot of my liberal friends) are critical of the Occupy Wall Street movement because they aren’t making demands. As if the act of protesting implied that they had special knowledge the rest of the us don’t have. 

So we are all making a leap of faith. We did that when we voted for Obama, and he hasn’t been any more forthcoming than any of the GOP with truth or solutions. He has made his choice of facts, and has thrown his lot in with the corporations. So why are we trusting that very well-produced White House message? We are just as clueless as the Tea Partiers, and our ignorance of the facts is just as profound.