January 31, 2005

The Folly of Democracy

As most of you who read rohitsrealm.com know, I'm not someone who frequently writes about political issues. I usually prefer to direct my efforts and anger at less controversial and more lighthearted topics, such as why crazy bums are a scourge on society. Nevertheless, once in a while, something I read, witness, or experience requires that I emerge from the wonderful shelter of educated ambivalence and overarching cynicism to actually let my views be known. Today is one of those days.

I was reading the New York Times tonight and an article on the front page caught my eye. The title: Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes. I immediately clicked on it and quickly read through, hoping to learn that yet another backward rural town deep in the Bible Belt, whose people are really more a burden than an asset to society, had decided to blindly jump back into the 19th century by eliminating the teaching of evolution in schools. What I read was infinitely worse.

Apparently, according to the article, teachers all across America (not just in the intellectually-challenged South and Midwest) are avoiding the topic of evolution in their classrooms for fear of antagonizing parents and schoolboards. What the hell is going on? Are we back to Inherit the Wind? That play was set in the goddamn 1930s - almost 80 years ago! Does it seem like America as a nation seems to be moving backwards in terms of intellectual advancement to anyone else? What is wrong with these people?! If they want to ignore centuries of scientific research to the contrary, that is entirely their right. To advocate their religious beliefs as a legitimate theory to be taught in the classroom alongside science, however, is an abomination.

As a biologist, and more importantly, as someone who passed elementary school, I cannot possible stand by and not say anything. Just reading these statistics makes me sick to the stomach at the amount of idiocy and ignorance that still permeates throughout this country: 53% of Americans agree with the statement human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species. That means 47% don't. This, as compared with 96% of Japan, 80% in most industrialized countries, and 75% in most Catholic nations agreeing with the statement. That last one is shocking: how can so few Americans believe in evolution when the Catholic Church (the same entity that just recently gave up the notion of geo-centrism) supports it? Have these people never looked at a chimpanzee and wondered, why does that thing kind of look like me, or are they so convinced of their own self-worth that they can simply ignore irrefutable scientific evidence and continue to live in darkness? It's no small wonder that this country remains economically successful, given the gross stupidity and absolute disdain most of its citizens hold for knowledge.

In some ways, I think it's not a mistake that such a non-issue like the relevance of evolution continues to remain contentious in the political arena. With the masses tied up in haggling over an issue that inherently will never be resolved (apples vs. oranges, or the validity of religion vs. science), the rich, dirtbag politicians can continue to sit pretty and not address real problems that are facing the country. It's almost like we're living in Tsarist Russia - the question, then, is what does that make Middle America?