Junk Science

In doing research recently, I came across a series of letters written to West Virginia Governor William Glasscock. They came from Major Leonard Darwin, famous scientist and son of evolution pioneer Charles. These letters invited Governor Glasscock to send a representative from West Virginia to the First International Eugenics Conference.

This conference sought to study the science behind racial degradation and propose legislative solutions to the problem that many of them believed threatened mankind. Was this a group of nutcases? No. The list of vice presidents of the society included Winston Churchill (soon to be head of the Royal Navy), Gifford Pinchot (chief conservation advisor for President Theodore Roosevelt), and many other esteemed names from both sides of the Atlantic.

What kind of legislative solutions could come of such a meeting? Eventually eugenics resulted in programs that sterilized the mentally challenged and even the chronically poor. The idea was that their inferior genes retarded the growth of mankind. Such ideals are not compatible with a democratic society because they undermine the concept that every one is free and equal under the law.

Of course we know that eugenics is junk science, a flawed field studied by well-meaning and intelligent people who observed natural phenomena and came to a horribly wrong conclusion. National Socialist Germany followed these ideas to their logical end.

In our time, junk science again rears its ugly head. This time the issue is what used to be called global warming. Now, after a bitterly cold winter, it has transformed to "climate change." Well-meaning, and some not so well-meaning, people have concluded that any shift in the earth's climate is A) artificial, and B) disastrous. Never mind that drastic shifts have occurred since the fall of Rome making the earth both much warmer and much colder than today. Surprisingly A) man survived and B) George W. Bush did not cause any of it.

Junk science threatens to destroy our prosperity and take away economic freedoms. If the United States follows the British model, electricity and other costs are expected to eventually skyrocket over 55%, leading to the loss of more manufacturing. Luckily, Senator Byrd stood up recently against legislation based upon unproven science that would destroy West Virginia's coal industry. How much damage will anti-capitalist left wingers do to individuals, business, and our country if junk science, just as in the days of eugenics, is allowed to prevail?