Is Better, Better?
It got me thinking about how many diseases I contracted as a child (measles, chickenpox, mumps, influenza, mononucleosis, etc.) and how many I was inoculated against (polio, smallpox, tetanus, diphtheria, yellow fever, typhoid, etc.) If one were to listen to modern day experts, I should be dead by now.
It seems that every technological advancement fixes 99% of the problem, but then there pops up an advocacy group to wear us down over the final 1%.
Remember how filthy and stinky our air was back in the 1950s and 1960s from car exhaust? We got rid of almost all of it with catalytic converters and changing gasoline formulation, but now there are still groups that go apoplectic over the last .01% of any tailpipe emissions.
Look at our water quality. Rivers used to catch on fire! So, now, we have rivers so clean you can almost drink out of them, but we have stories for months when there is an accident (not a daily dumping) of a substance into a river. Sure, it is tragic, but jeez people, crap occurs.
For every successful vaccine, there is at least one group that blames the vaccine for anything from autism to hair on your tongue. No good deed goes unpunished. Folks need to be reminded of how desperate it used to be for the human race... even in America.
Fluorescent lights, LEDs, MTBE in gas, lead in gas, clean coal, alar on apples, the list goes on. Look at Snopes.com if you want to see some of the wacky stuff people think up, even in our post-enlightenment age.
Bottom line? Humans hate uncertainty and they will come up with just about anything to explain things away. While we may scoff at the mom who swears that electric blankets cause leukemia, others will look upon climate change deniers with disdain. Even that word denier is toxic. Why not, climate change questioner? (I'm NOT a bad person!)
Just about every new technology we have has displaced a previous new technology which was certain to change the world. There was scientific certainty that the debris field for the missing Flight MH370 777 would be in a certain spot off the coast of Perth, Australia, that is, until the theory changed. Now they are certain it will be found somewhere else, until that idea is proven wrong.
There is still a LOT we don't know. So, lighten up folks. Stop with the crazy explanations for everything and just because I don't believe your flavor-of-the-week theory, don't taze me bro!
Comments