Anti-intellectualism, that scourge of the American psyche, is clearly in mid up-swing. Anti-rationalism and anti-scientism is visible everywhere, spectacularly so in efforts to block the teaching of evolution in public school. It is all very embarrassing for the reality-based among us.
It can make one start to wish for another Sputnik, another event so shocking to that same American psyche that it would spur another serious push for better and more competitive science education. This happened, after all, in the wake of Sputnik. Something similar now would be infinitely better for everybody than the ridiculous posturings of 'Intelligent Design' and the other evolution-only-a-theory folks. More critical thought and better understanding of the material world is needed, not less. Another wake-up call is in order.
Then one comes back to reality and feels suddenly guilty for wishing for disaster, recalls that the planes have already hit the buildings and the cloud of ash risen over southern Manhattan and then been blown away. The shock came and went, and still the Sputnik moment did not arrive, or, at least, the devaluing of science and the legacy of the Enlightenment only continues.
This, I think, is the unforeseen consequence of the new age of asymmetic warfare, the legacy of the low-tech attack. The detonator in those planes was not a gadget but the absolute faith that allowed the human pilots to steer dead into the glass towers. There has been a Sputnik moment, but the tech and arms race embarked upon recognizes faith as the ultimate weapon, and the tactical goal seems be to out-believe the enemy.
This is very dangerous. Not that belief cannot be part of a very effective military technology. Clearly, it can. But the trigger mechanism (didn't anyone notice, in this Sputnik moment?) is suicide.
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I agree, the country seems to be in a space race to out-space-out against a spaced-out enemy. The signal event to wish for, in order to spur a return to rational thought, would be an achievement using the scientific method.
Kazakhstan, say, invents a time machine, and starts sending bold chrononauts back to the Cretaceous. Next thing we know, they drop a pack of Allosaurs on New York City. Plesiosaurs are patrolling the Caspian Sea. We respond by building our own time machine, grabbing a handful of saber-toothed tigers or mastodons to throw at them. The whole thing revolves around evolution and the age of the world, much to the chagrin of fundamentalists the world over.
... But then, just like in A Sound of Thunder, we step on the wrong butterfly, and suddenly we're all in deep trouble.
Out-space-out? Ausausräumen? No, wait, that might mean something already ... but I am watching for the Allosaurs.
I took a slightly different slant last November.
Our two slants come together to make an unpleasantly convincing picture.
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