The other night Darin and I were watching The Late Show and Letterman came on to do his monologue. Usually Letterman's monologue sucks; I'm sorry, but there it is.
In this monologue he ripped Bob Dole up and down for his comments on the tobacco industry and how tobacco isn't that bad for you. Evidently Dole said something to the effect that adults should be able to choose for themselves whether they smoke, and Letterman said, "But they can't choose on abortion?"
Darin and I sat up straight. Letterman never gets political.
The Top Ten List was "Top Ten Signs Bob Dole Is In Bed With The Tobacco Industry." It was actually pretty funny. When Letterman's fangs come out he's in top form.
Then the first guest, Jeff Goldblum came out and Letterman asked, "So do you believe in aliens?" and Goldblum said, basically, No. And then started discussing the new book by Carl Sagan. (Which he didn't name, but is in fact called The Demon-Haunted World.) Letterman, caught up in the spirit of the moment, talked about how wondrous the universe is without needing aliens-are-coming crap and even tossed off something to the effect of "If the universe is always expanding, then it must be infinite." (Darin says that's wrong, but still--Dave gets credit.)
All in all, a pretty fun little show.
It got me thinking because of all the pablum we usually see on television. In fact, Sagan (in his new book, which is on my nightstand and which I've finally opened because of Letterman's show) talks about how pseudoscience and bad science and issues of what feels true are far more prevalent in our society than good science. All of modern society runs via science and technology, and yet we're caught in the grip of fear and superstition. You know, the old canard about there being an astrology column in every newspaper but not necessarily a science column.
I have a friend who's a technical writer and a very smart, very educated woman. Who doesn't believe in the efficacy of vaccination. Getting vaccinated against smallpox many years ago left a serious psychic scar on her--I guess it made her sick, a common reaction. Still, a better reaction than actually getting smallpox. Anyhow, she didn't like how she reacted to the smallpox vaccination and she doesn't feel that putting either the dead cells or partial cells of a disease into your body in order to protect that body against the disease is wise. So she hasn't vaccinated her son against polio, diptheria, tuberculosis, measles, and whatever else you can be vaccinated against these days. She's going to use her psychic powers to protect him.
Explaining to her how vaccinations work is a waste of time. Reminding her of what the world used to be like--seen a quarantine notice against polio recently? My father used to see them all the time when he was growing up--is not going to help. Showing her that she is clearly taking advantage of the fact that nearly everyone around her is vaccinated against the diseases and therefore protecting her son by keeping the incidence of disease down is not going to change her mind.
She went on a trip to the South Pacific. Before leaving, she asked her homeopath for a remedy for malaria. You know, malaria existed for thousands of years before a cure was found, and it wasn't found by diluting a "like substance" in some outrageous quantity of water.
She consults an astrologer like I consult a therapist (only far less frequently). Every time she goes she tells me what the astrologer said, and I write it down in my journals. My friend loves this astrologer because the astrologer has been totally accurate. Well, not quite, actually--but my friend explains away the outrageous failures and points to the "hits". None of which have helped her make her life better. She's had a very difficult time of it over the past couple of years, and instead of taking actions she knows are in her best interest, she's waited to get the go ahead from her astrologer.
This stuff makes me crazy.
It makes me crazy because I know how attractive stuff like astrology is. I know because I want it to be true. I want there to be easy answers, I want there to be some connection with the universe that means that everything makes sense and Someone is watching out for us.
It just ain't so.
The universe isn't the way it is because I feel it to be so or because I create my own reality. If you believe you create your own reality, try walking off a skyscraper, I dare you.
There's a very good book on logic and how to analyze what we hear and read about in every day life. It's called How To Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, by Theodore Schick, Jr., and Lewis Vaughn. It's a nice, easy, well-explained introduction to critical thinking and why certain things just ain't so. (If you want to see the phrase "That may be true for you but not for me" be torn apart, this is the book.)
Last Updated: 5-Jul-96
©1996 Diane Patterson