Its funny to me how people will leave something that comes out of the science community relatively alone, such as finding a new species for instance, because it doesn't affect them. New species? that's cool...move on with my life, right? But in that last sentence lays the key to the problem:
CHANGE
People, humans...ALL OF US...fundamentally hate and fear change. Especially the kind of change that requires us to change our habits or makes us responsible for our actions. We get in to this rhythm that's comfortable for us individually, and we don't want to change that because it disrupts what we are used to, and causing our set flow to become chaotic in our minds. In reality it's really not, but
now where changing out habits are concerned, people are so super glued to their habits that they will fight tooth and nail. Something as simple as people getting a club card at a grocery store that will help them to save a little money on their grocery bill, they wont because "its an extra card I have to worry about" and its such a "burden" to take the 5 seconds to pull the card out at the register so they don't have to pay as much as they would have. Ive seen people out there that have literally halved or more their grocery bill because they had the card...but no people don't want it because it changes their shopping habits. Ive seen people give these glares to cashiers at grocery stores as if the cashier who just told them they can save 10 dollars on their grocery bill as if they just called them a cunt! Its really that bad!
Responsibility! Often fear of change is spawned from another fundamental human problem...We as a race don't want to be held accountable for our actions. We feel like because we breath air and walk the earth we are entitled to do as we please without any kind of recourse whatsoever. Such is really not the case of course, as we do have a criminal justice system...of obviously we hold each other accountable for things.
This is why things like the manufacturing, selling and use of cigarettes, for instance, has become such a hot bed issue over the last, oh Id says, 75 years or so. Little by little we are discovering more information that damns smoking cigarettes because of their cancer causing properties. We have strong, well researched medical evidence its true. Oh but lone behold the tobacco companies have to fight that with their own funded "research" to disprove what the surgeon general, and many other medical research facilities around the world have found. Why? Not because they want to verify the findings and change if its true! No! They are doing it for one reason and one reason only! They don't want to stop producing a hot seller, even if it kills. It also makes them accountable for their actions, and they don't want that either
How about the bible believers? Now I'm not saying I follow the bible, there are certain principles that i walked away with that I found that were applicable to a life that doesn't include biblical religion, but I did study it for many many years before I walked away from it. Let's face it...biblical religion followed the way the bible teaches it requires people to change, and holds them responsible for their actions and people will fight tooth and nail to avoid it. This is why you see so many people, whether atheist or not, who will in some cases violently resist people who come to their doors, not necessarily because they don't believe what these people are preaching is true or no, it very well may be, what I am saying is these different belief systems they are preaching about require change, and they don't want make that kind of change, because making that change makes them more responsible for their actions. and that in many peoples mind is a grievous thing.
How about the theory of global warming/climate change? People fight tooth and nail against this as well. They will even try to skew the definitions of "hypothesis" (which is the educated guess that people try to say the theory is, because a hypothesis is formed out of observations that a scientist makes based on the knowledge of the working world they already have) and "theory" which is what a hypothesis turns into after being extensively tested by people. Its not that is untrue. there is a HUGE amount of evidence that modern Global Warming/Climate change problem is caused by us, enough where climatologists are saying we should be doing something...oh but wait...that makes us have to change the way we do things...there's that change again. Being that change is massive...oh we have to fight that with vigor, cause we should never have to change. EVER! and so, the argument is not really a result over questioning the validity of the science, but over the fact that such a thing being true requires us to make huge changes, and since we fear that change, many people are going to fight it, even get down and dirty to fight it.
Change shouldn't be something to fight if its clearly for the better. swapping meanings for words to downplay the seriousness of something, to trying to come up with evidence against it just so you don't have to make that change...doesn't mean that the change shouldn't be made.
No comments:
Post a Comment