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Chris and Dave Wattenberg From our earliest days in school we are taught that there a many absolutes. There are five senses, the world is round, water boils at 210 degrees, and on and on. We are introduced to science and the scientific or experimental method. Later in life we
find that water
only boils at 210 degrees at sea level. In Let us take a
simple example. Let
us say that a researcher has theorized that people in the South like
fried
chicken more than people in the North. This researcher eliminates age,
economic
conditions, health and gender as significant factor. In the North they
interview highly successful Much of the scientific results are colored by the elimination of significant factors. We receive only a summary of the study. By the time the real factors are found, the results from the flawed study have become “common knowledge.” Nobody questions it. When back information becomes part of the collective knowledge base, we need to “unlearn” what “everyone knows” before we can learn what is right. This is often, if not usually, complicated by those who either have built an industry or have defined themselves by this misinformation. As an example, look at the problems that have arisen when a medication is found to have been released based on flawed studies. Many people, including doctors and patients, swear that they have been helped by the medication. The pharmaceutical companies attempts to defend its product and cast doubt on the veracity of the new research. Two scenarios now can play out. In the first, the new research proves good. Memos suddenly surface to show the researcher is to blame. The product is withdrawn and many people feel betrayed. The second scenario is stranger. If the new researcher is proved to be completely in error and the original research is validated, the misinformation is still in people’s minds. The product looses sales and both patients and doctor are ill at easy with the medication. For many
centuries’ herbs,
laying-on-of-hands, diet, exercise and other natural health practices
were the
norm. Through the twentieth century science, the medical industry and
the
pharmaceutical industry have made fun of these natural methods.
Ironically,
they would make fun of these practices even as they extracted their own
products from them. Today, most people still will take any medication their doctor prescribes, regardless of the potential side effects. If a side effect arises, they will take another medication to counteract the adverse effects of the first, and then another for the next set of effects. These same people will not try, or trust, the natural methods, even though those methods have no adverse side effects. Currently our county, and most of the world, is starting on a green revolution. The major issue is to unlearn over a century of teaching that mechanical and chemical solutions are preferable to natural methods. How long will it be before we learn the same about health care? How long will insurance companies fully support the pharmaceutical industry and not support nutrition, complimentary practices and non-chemical health and mental care? . Return |