Too often so-called expert opinions from scientists are not factual or truthful and are promoted as fact and truth by misguided news reporters making sensational, hypothetical arguments and claims founded on incorrect statements and forecasts, as well as on flawed theories and models, and out-of-date or obsolete playbooks. Too often we do not find out the REAL truth and facts until years later…and too often that is too late.
For example, during the 1960s the so-called experts said, due to climate change, the east coast of the United States from New York to Florida would be under three feet of water and the ozone layer protecting the earth from the sun’s killer radiation would be depleted by the year 2000.
During the early 21st Century, the so-called intelligence experts for every country worldwide said the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had a huge stockpile of sophisticated, deadly chemical weapons which led a misguided American President to declare war on Iraq thus needlessly killing and maiming over 15,000 American soldiers and countless innocent Iraq citizens. As it turned out Hussein did not have a stockpile of chemical weapons.
Decades earlier the so-called American intelligence experts said the Soviet Union had twice as many nuclear missiles than they actually had because when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, during the early 1990s, it was found that half the Soviet’s nuclear missile silos were empty and many of the nuclear missiles they had were not even functional enough to be launched.
Here are some other examples where the so-called experts and/or those in touch with the experts, were dead wrong:
“There is no indication we can ever split the atom so nuclear energy will never be obtainable.” – Albert Einstein, 1932
Decca Records, the #1 pop music producers in the 1960s did not sign the Beatles because Decca’s expert music talent executives said no one likes the Beatles’ sound and guitar music was on its way out of style anyway.
“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union experts in an internal company memo, 1876
“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” – Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883
“The horse is here to stay. The automobile is only a novelty—a fad.” – The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903
“Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” – World famous Darryl Zanuck, movie producer for 20th Century Fox, 1946
“If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” – W.C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954
“There will never be a bigger plane built.” – An expert Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that held ten people.
“The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most.” – Experts at IBM to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying that the Xerox photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959
“When the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor, surgeon and author Sir Erasmus Wilson, 1878
“A rocket will never leave Earth’s atmosphere.” – Editorial experts at The New York Times, 1936
The new faith in science has been going on for quite some time now. During the Mid-Ages people relied on religion to set them free. The peasant stood in awe of the holy priest. The priest was the only one that could even read. Today, too many of us may be standing in awe of science.
Governments issue decrees and bans based on the results of scientific research, research which isolates mathematics and language to show results at the expense of overlooking detail in the research which, upon closer inspection of the detail, could show the research results invalid and unreliable. In scientific study the devil is always in the details.
For example, surveys, like public opinion polls, tend to be the most invalid and unreliable of all scientific research tools because too often the population sample size is most always too small to get valid and reliable polling results, and the way questions are, consciously or unconsciously, written and asked in a poll or survey too often can skew the answers given to the poll questions in favor of the political agenda being ‘pushed’ or ‘pitched’ to the public by whoever it is that is paying to have the poll or survey conducted.
The idea that scientific researchers always act in good faith may too often not even be questioned by their misinformed followers, the news media, the government and the public. All that is needed is a consensus or acceptance by the ruling majority and the results, based on possibly contrived empirical scientific inquiry, becomes fact and law upheld by the ruling majority which too often then forces the public to accept and submit to it.
The problem is not with empirical scientific inquiry but with the corrupted, mental laziness that brings on this acceptance. It is just easier to be spoon fed information or find someone or something you can or want to trust. This is especially true when it comes to disputing scientific research that requires the mastery of scientific language needed to grasp and understand empirical scientific inquiry…which is difficult to do in the first place.
Just as the Medieval Church grew rich in power and wealth from its supremacy of thought control during the Middle Ages, is the scientific community, today, following the same course by essentially winning control of the hearts and minds of leaders and the masses through science and scientific research?
Remember, as much as science has contributed to mankind, scientific thought is inherently unable to conceive of the realm of the spirit and soul where all numbers and time are meaningless and insignificant. Religion cannot breakdown the elements and atoms of the natural world and put it under a microscope, but science cannot describe the spiritual either. Beware of praying to science and scientists. They are neither our priests nor our confessors and they are not god-like as some in politics, the public, the news media and the loyal followers of the scientific community may like to believe.
One expert opinion which may turn out to be true is the worldwide lockdown and economic ruination to control the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 that may be a gross overreaction erring on the side of caution, as the pandemic ‘lockdown’ cure may turn out to destroy more families and lives than the pandemic virus itself. Also, locking down the public from moving about and mingling with other people inhibits, and possibly even prohibits, much needed community, herd immunity. Furthermore, it is unconstitutional in the U.S. to quarantine anyone who is not sick.
All expert opinions are always stated in such a way to err on the side of caution and always protect scientists from legal liability. And all scientific experts always ‘qualify’ their language with words like ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘possibly’, ‘potentially’ and so on because nothing in science is ever quoted as if it is ‘absolute’, but instead is always quoted more so in relative, not absolute terms. This is the nature inherent in empirical scientific study, thought and explanation. It is not in the realm of science to ever make absolute claims because every valid and reliable scientific opinion must always be qualified by ‘and more research needs to be done’.
Moreover, have you ever gone to a physician for a physical and the doctor did ‘not’ tell you to curtail certain bad habits like cutting down on smoking, drinking alcohol, as well as lower your consumption of certain foods? Odds are, over time, you did not cut down your consumption and you conceivably lived a healthy life many decades longer. Did you ever hear a news reporter say, a hurricane is headed right for your locale but do not worry about it, odds are it will not hurt you? Safety and security does not ‘sell’ well with the public. Fear sells and gets strong audience viewership and readership. Spreading fear via the news media gets the public to act and react…for better or worse.
We can only blame ourselves for getting duped for over 2000 years of recorded history by the so-called experts. We tend to place our trust in the experts rather than putting in the time consuming effort using common sense, perception, reason, experience, feeling (vibes) and intuition, and doing the necessary critical thinking to figure out things for ourselves considering all sides of all arguments presented ‘before’ we act. The electorate tends to ‘roll over’ and submit rather than demand getting fair and extensive debates covering ALL sides of important ideas and issues.
The ruling classes have no incentive to provide fair, extensive debates on ideas and issues because a truly educated electorate will only erode, and possibly even eradicate, the power of the ruling classes. We too often do not even consider that it has ALWAYS been about the ruling classes exerting power over the weak and vulnerable and, the bottom line? It is always about moving your money into their pockets no matter if you are a capitalist, socialist, communist or ruled by a dictator.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCES: SCOTT ATLAS, MD AND FORMER CHIEF OF NEURORADIOLOGY AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER ON DAILY CALLER, NATIONAL REVIEW, and REAL CLEAR POLITICS APRIL/ MAY 2020 and SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT AUGUST 2017 and ADBUSTERS MAGAZINE WINTER 1997