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Why don't they want to enter politics though? If we drew up a hypothetical list of attributes for a scientist, how many could cross over into politics? Signifi
by eftpotrm 15y ago
Why don't they want to enter politics though? If we drew up a hypothetical list of attributes for a scientist, how many could cross over into politics?
Significant intellect and a desire to exercise that in significant work? Yes.
Deep interest in a field and a wish to explore that further? Yes. (In the sense that many such people seem capable of maintaining multiple such interests.)
Interest in complex work and ability to hold large datasets in mind? Yes.
Drive to rise above others and push for achievement? Yes.
The more I look, the more it seems that a major factor working against scientist partiicpation in public debate generally and politics more specifically is a strong pervading trend of anti-intellectuallism. In science they can know that, by and large, if they back up their assertions with rigorous testing and data, their viewpoint will at the very least be taken seriously and very likely accepted. Whereas, by current trends at least, in politics their assertion would be rubbished as elitist and talked down with an incoherent anecdote.
Where, in that system, is the motivation for the genuinely capable and informed to use their abilities for the public good?
- larrydag 15y agoOne of the most failed "experiments" of science and politics was Robert McNamara as U.S. Secretary of Defense under JFK. He used a lot of scientific methods to evaluate his political decisions with war and intervention. All of his evaluations pointed out that the U.S. should intervene in Vietnam and look how that turned out. In politics there are too many variables at play. Perhaps politics is good for the "intellectual" but not for the scientist. As an aside I think its a little bit dangerous to put intellectual and scientist in the same category.
- dhume 15y agoHow many tests did he run? What confidence interval did he establish? What factors did he control for and how?
- larrydag 15y agoGood questions of which I do not know the specifics. McNamara's background was with helping turn Ford around by using his statistical and analytical expertise. Later he got involved using those same techniques with the Defense Dept.
- hobin 15y agoBeing a scientist (physicist), I think I can answer that question. I am deeply interested in helping people, and yes, this means if it were up to me, I'd try to replace all sorts of legislation, and I think there are many things that could be dealt with much, much better. In the end, however, I think I would find a job as a politician extremely frustrating. Sure, I might be able to deal with the bureaucracy, but I like to have a job that I, well, like. Being a politician would mean voluntarily surrendering myself to the plague of bureaucracy, and I would probably go mad. Call me arrogant if you wish, but I simply don't think I could deal with many of those politicians for very long before getting all upset and claiming they're all a bunch of fools who should stop being such ideological illogical idiots. Thus, I try to help people in a more indirect way, by doing what I enjoy. Namely, science.