One of the most significant consequences of consumer empowerment is the willingness to question and challenge traditional sources of authority. The opinions of the people in the white lab coats are no longer trusted, whether defending the integrity of GM foods and MMR vaccines, presenting the scientific evidence underpinning climate change or questioning the efficacy of homeopathy. This represents a huge challenge for the scientific community, which is increasingly losing the battle for hearts and minds, but it is also an issue for society as a whole – when we no longer trust the experts, who can we trust?
A new book has just been written on this topic by The New Yorker’s science writer, Michael Specter – “Denialism: How irrational thinking hinders scientific progress, harms the planet & threatens our lives.” Specter sees the lack of faith in the scientific evidence produced by formerly trusted authorities as symptomatic of a society struggling to cope with “the trauma of change.” No matter how much evidence is produced, the deniars will always find a hole in any scientific argument that doesn’t reflect their view of the world, so biotech will always be unsafe, whereas paradoxically, the scientific evidence for man-made climate change can never be challenged. It is now difficult to envisage a time when GM food production will be permitted in Europe; no matter what scientific evidence is produced, the anti-GM movement will always be able to play on the irrational fears of European consumers.
G K Chesterton’s aphorism, “When men stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing. They believe in anything” should be reworked for the 21st Century. Swap the word ‘science’ for ‘God’ and you have a pretty good sense of the prevailing view within society.