Cobb: The Truth about Uranium

July 11, 2003

The Truth about Uranium

I hear that there is a theory that science makes no great leaps forward after marriage. I'm not entirely sure that I believe this at all, but even if it were true, it would make for a striking incrimination of science itself.

I've a theory about a phenomenon I call 'scientific animism'. It occured to me when I was younger than 30 and single, so there might be something to it. The idea is simply that loads of us love to believe in science, even though we don't understand it. One simply needs to be a fan of sci-fi or be wary of cholestrol without the ability to identify the molecule under a microscope to be such an animist. Nothing could be further from the true precepts of the scientific method than our abiding faith in Science and Technology. Science is about disciplined skepticism and the ability to immediately walk away from that which stinks. The result is often frustration but often discovery.

If its defenders are to be believed, the scientific method is the best way of discovering truth. But truth is not such a good thing, since Truth doesn't serve man. If truth be told, scientists can be self-serving in their quest for the possession of truth. It does indeed make them high priests. And there's the rub.

So what are we to do with the latest and greatest discoveries of truth as revealed by unmarried people without children? Not much, says conservative moi. But we needn't worry, because the nature of such scientific discovery, by dint of the difficulty and discipline required to advance it trickles through the rest of society rather slowly. What scientists know and discover is rarely communicated to the world by scientists themselves - they don't have the money, and that's a good thing.

It it is most interesting when scientific animism meets that other work of faith, political partisanship. So as scientists and politicians climb over each other to try to discover the truth about say, Uranium, we animists and partisans have a tough row to hoe in making sense of their competing axioms. The truth is out there, but the fact is that it may always be to little or too late to be of any practical benefit.

You don't have to be unmarried and single to discover that.

UPDATE: Disenchanted

Posted by mbowen at July 11, 2003 03:49 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.visioncircle.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/253

Comments

I'm 40, single, never married, no kiddies. I see married people and think, I'm not ready for my life to go down hill yet. haha I just dont know too many married people that wish their life was "different." Everyone tells me to stay single. I travel pursue interests. I study, I learn. A lot of married people just seem to bad mouth their kids or spouse. Am I way off the topic here?

Posted by: Liz at July 11, 2003 05:28 PM

Nothing's off topic here, especially on Brain Spew Friday.

The hardest thing about being single is finally knowing at some tragic moment that you have nothing to contribute to the cold, cruel World. It's hard to take when you don't even have a friend to call just to hear you bitch and moan. At least that's how it felt for me. ME!! And I know that I'm special. So single people become excellent and perennial critics - that is those in the soft bourgie middle. If you don't give a crap about contributing to the World and are just trying to survive, being single is great. That's a fantasy of mine: being Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction where life is just hard enough for you to realize that having your own skin and a little love is all you need.

I entertained another fantasy about 11 years ago. That was that I would marry an Ivy Leauge graduate student. But I learned something. Graduate students are very abnormal people - they don't have time for much of anything except proving that they are smart enough to please whomever it is that stands between them and the PhD.

Having children is the exact reverse of life. All the rewards are right up front and it gets more difficult and complex as time goes by. Marriage is the same. Well, to be strictly accurate about both they are like very shallow parabolas. They gradually get worse and then if they don't plummet into doom, they invariably get better. Acceptance, compromise.

As for wishing life were different. Well, life *is* different. People can't suppress their desires indefinitely. That's the truth. The trick is accepting that it is the truth and it doesn't necessarily serve you.

Just have some chocolate chip cookies, and in a minute you'll remember that you don't believe in all this crap. You'll feel right as rain.

Posted by: Cobb at July 11, 2003 07:31 PM