Buckle up, conspiracy theorists, because we're about to delve into the twisted world of politicized and commercialized science. It's a recurring theme in Michael Crichton's best-known novels, like Congo, Timeline, Prey, and Jurassic Park. The man was a Harvard-trained MD, and he knew a thing or two about the dangers of science becoming our master.
But what if I told you that there was a scientific theory embraced by "Progressives" in government and supported by big corporate money from foundations like Carnegie and Rockefeller? What if I told you that research was carried out at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins, among other top universities? And what if I told you that this theory postulated "a crisis of the gene pool leading to the deterioration of the human race"?
Sounds like the stuff of nightmares, right? Well, that's because it was. The theory was eugenics, and it turned out to be a grotesque pseudo-science. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was among its earliest and most vocal proponents. She believed that the only way to save humanity was to rid it of "human weeds," including mentally disabled people and Black individuals.
But wait, there's more. The plot of Crichton's novel State of Fear revolves around the environmental movement and its obsession with "global warming" or "climate change" (whichever is the label du jour). Crichton isn't anti-warming per se, but he is skeptical of the way the "science" surrounding it has become thoroughly politicized. It follows the same pattern as eugenics, with the same kinds of people behind it, the same push by governments, universities, and corporations, and the same big money driving it.
According to Crichton, the reason for all this is to keep the population in a constant state of fear so they can be more easily manipulated. Governments want to exert control over the behavior of their citizens to keep them orderly and reasonably docile. And of course, we know that social control is best managed through fear.
Sound familiar? Enter the COVID-19 pandemic, the most immediate and pressing "crisis" of our time. Governments around the world have indisputably used it to further control us, just as Crichton prophesied 19 years ago in State of Fear. If you read the book and substitute "coronavirus" for "global warming," you'll have a very contemporary story indeed.
But what does Crichton want us to do? He emphasizes the importance of rejecting politicized science and insisting that governments and researchers follow the actual science to its honest conclusions, whatever those may be. Doing so will likely not benefit the powers-that-be, but it will benefit the rest of us.
So, conspiracy theorists, what have we learned today? We've learned that science can be dangerous when it becomes politicized and commercialized. We've learned that the powers-that-be use fear to control us, whether it's through eugenics, global warming, or a pandemic. And we've learned that we need to be skeptical of any scientific theory that is embraced by governments and supported by big corporate money.
In the end, the message of State of Fear is clear: don't let science become our master. We need to use it as a tool to improve our lives, but we must be careful not to let it control us. If we do that, we might just be able to avoid the nightmares of eugenics, global warming, and pandemics.