The News Review:
- Greetings from the Gong Bath
- ‘You Won’t Go Bankrupt. You’ll Always Produce’
- Medical Disasters: 8 Simple Tips Guaranteed to Save Your Life in the…
- Guards order inmates to beat jailed blind Chinese activist Chen…
- Exubera Demonstrated Pulmonary Safety with Blood Sugar Control in…
- RNA polymerase points to new targets for drug design
Greetings from the Gong Bath
Guardian Unlimited - Jun 23, 2007
People in South Africa are being told that vegetables and vitamin pills are a better treatment for HIV than antiretroviral medication. At least one healer in the UK has been accused of having sex with vulnerable women who came to him for help with their problems (I double dare you to mention names in a case like that from a field without access to lawyers or press cuttings). And forgive me if I’m getting too geeky in the mud here, but there is a real issue that quacks undermine the public understanding of science when they promote their trade with dodgy research claims, or distortions of the very nature of evidence. So bullshit is risky, but these problems could be addressed. I’m surrounded by fair trade ethical footwear, and I can’t help thinking that if complementary and alternative medicine practitioners insist on their right to use bullshit, then maybe they have a responsibility to recognise the risks of bullshit, and to manage these risks, ethically and considerately, like any other byproduct of any other industry. I am calling, in effect, for a new ethics of bullshit. Quite aside from the issues that need to be addressed, this would also be a stimulating new project for philosophers… And forgive me if I’m getting too geeky in the mud here, but there is a real issue that quacks undermine the public understanding of science when they promote their trade with dodgy research claims, or distortions of the very nature of evidence. So bullshit is risky, but these problems could be addressed. I’m surrounded by fair trade ethical footwear, and I can’t help thinking that if complementary and alternative medicine practitioners insist on their right to use bullshit, then maybe they have a responsibility to recognise the risks of bullshit, and to manage these risks, ethically and considerately, like any other byproduct of any other industry. I am calling, in effect, for a new ethics of bullshit. Quite aside from the issues that need to be addressed, this would also be a stimulating new project for philosophers. Much of modern medical ethics hangs on patient autonomy and informed consent, and both of those get very complicated when you start bullshitting your patient. Questioning your own ideas is not a new phenomenon.
‘You Won’t Go Bankrupt. You’ll Always Produce’
Lew Rockwell - Jun 23, 2007
Go to the former
Soviet Union, land of inveterate drunks and premature death where
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