The Rural Voice, 2019-03, Page 10 There’s never been a time in
human history when the general
population was more educated than
today. There’s never been a time,
thanks to smart phones and the
internet, when we’ve had access to
more expert knowledge. So why is it
that for a significant minority,
expertise is actually mistrusted?
Led by doubter-in-chief Donald
Trump, the U.S. has become a hotbed
of skepticism. Here’s a president of
the world’s most powerful country
who doesn’t trust the information
given to him by his intelligence
officials but prefers his own gut
instinct. They say the Russians
interfered with the 2016 elections. He
knows better. They say Iran has lived
up to its commitments not to develop
nuclear weapons. He’s sure Iran has
cheated. He’s sure, based on a couple
of hours of meetings with North
Korea’s President Kim Jong-un that
he’s a man who can be trusted, even
if his officials say Kim’s gone right
on developing nuclear weapons.
Millions share the belief that their
personal instinct is more to be trusted
than scientific research. The lives of
countless of children are at risk
because their parents refuse to have
them vaccinated against various
diseases. They distrust the medical
and scientific communities which say
vaccines are safe, choosing to listen
to a British doctor, since discredited
and banned from practicing, who
claimed he had evidence linking
vaccines to autism. These parents are
sure the doctor is a victim of an
elaborate conspiracy by drug
companies and the medical
profession to silence him.
The ultimate in conspiracy
theories is the belief that the world is
not a sphere, but is actually flat, just
as people believed before
Christopher Columbus didn’t fall off
the edge when he traveled west and
discovered the Americas. I had
thought the idea that there were still
people who believed the earth was
flat was a joke, until I read an article
in the current issue of Canadian
Geographic magazine.
Writer Omar Mouallem writes
about attending Canada’s first Flat
Earth International Conference in
Edmonton last summer. Some 250
people came to listen to stars of the
movement like Mark Sargent, who
posted his video “Flat Earth Clues
Introduction” to YouTube and has
65,000 subscribers to his channel. He
told listeners there’s no proof the
planets are spheres and the moon is
probably a two-dimensional object
with three-dimensional properties.
Inspired by Sargent’s original
video, amateur flat-earth scientists
developed a theory that earth is
actually a stationary disk under a
physical dome from which are hung
the sun, moon and stars.
Why doesn’t the mainstream
scientific community admit its theory
of earth and space is wrong? Because
so much of the modern society is
built on this fake science that
overnight markets would collapse,
universities would close and people
would begin to question other fake
theories like evolution.
Now after all this talk about
skepticism, I suppose I can be
accused of hypocrisy when I say I
sometimes doubt the conclusions of
scientists myself. It’s not that I doubt
their scientific findings, it’s just that
sometimes I wonder if they’ve
looked at all sides of the issue.
One such case is the theory that
raising cattle is bad for the
environment because cattle belch
methane gas as they digest grass, hay
or silage. I have no doubt that the
research showing cattle burp methane
is right, but has full consideration
been given to the role of cattle in
harvesting the sun’s energy on land
that’s not suitable for growing plant-
based protein? Has anyone factored
in the value of manure for fertilizing
crops at a time when many con-
sumers reject chemical fertilizers?
The key, it seems to me, is to
keep an open mind and look at all
angles – although I’m not sure I’ll
devote much time to examining the
“evidence” the world is flat.◊
6 The Rural Voice
Experts can’t
be trusted
Keith is former
publisher of
The Rural
Voice.
He lives near
Blyth, ON.
Keith Roulston
411575 Sideroad 41,
Mount Forest
519-323-9841
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