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The Tragedy of American Science: From the Cold War to the Forever Wars
The tragedy of American science is that its direction is determined by private profit rather than by the desire to improve the human condition. As a result, Conner argues, Big Science has been irredeemably corrupted by Big Money. This corruption threatens the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the medicines we take.
The Tragedy of American Science explores how the U.S. economy’s addiction to military spending distorts and deforms science by making it overwhelmingly subservient to military interests. The primary motive driving American science and technology has become the search for new and more efficient ways to kill people. This transforms science from the classic ideal of a creative force for the advancement of humankind into its destructive and antihuman opposite. That those trillions of dollars in resources and scientific talent are not devoted to solving the problems of poverty, disease, and environmental destruction is one of the greatest tragedies of our times.
While the underlying problems may appear intractable, Conner compellingly argues that replacing the current science-for-profit system with a science-for-human-needs system is not an impossible, utopian dream. But to get there, we’ll need to grapple with this important history.
The Tragedy of American Science explores how the U.S. economy’s addiction to military spending distorts and deforms science by making it overwhelmingly subservient to military interests. The primary motive driving American science and technology has become the search for new and more efficient ways to kill people. This transforms science from the classic ideal of a creative force for the advancement of humankind into its destructive and antihuman opposite. That those trillions of dollars in resources and scientific talent are not devoted to solving the problems of poverty, disease, and environmental destruction is one of the greatest tragedies of our times.
While the underlying problems may appear intractable, Conner compellingly argues that replacing the current science-for-profit system with a science-for-human-needs system is not an impossible, utopian dream. But to get there, we’ll need to grapple with this important history.
300 pages, Paperback
Published June 28, 2022
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January 12, 2024
Wow, what a wake up call. Lots of info and well noted. A lot of sad and avoidable situations humanity is in, yet utterly difficult to make changes when the powerful and rich are in control. A few sentences I liked "The root problem of hunger is economic inequality." [pg33] Basically there is plenty of food if one can afford it. Howabout, "The earth's temperature is analogous not to the air temperature you feel on your skin but to the one inside your body. If your body temperature goes up three or four degrees and does not come back down, it means you are dying. The same goes for Mother Earth." [pg82] "More engery from sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour...than all the energy consumed on the planet in a year." [pg94]
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