America, "Captive Of A Scientific Technological Elite"

As I get older it certainly seems to turn out that much of the history I learned in my youth was only partially true. Part of this can be chalked up to new discoveries and ideas that simply were not around when I was first introduced to something. But, there are also things in history which writers of history and, by extension, my teachers choose to ignore.

A good example of this can be found in Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, the famous "Military-Industrial Complex Speech."

In this speech, Eisenhower first lays out the scope of his concern:

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

The first threat he goes on to talk about is the Military-Industrial Complex. This is the part of the speech I was taught, both formally and via the media who often brought up this idea in a variety of contexts.

But, what exactly was the second threat? I have to admit, I never knew there was a second threat Eisenhower had discussed, until recently.

Here is how Ike laid it out:

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

It is impossible to read this and not think of how the Global Warming crowd embodies the precise worries Eisenhower laid out. Instead of the goals of a free democratic society being paramount, we now live in an age where a scientific elite is demanding the suspension of democratic rule because the stakes are supposedly too high to be left to the vagaries of the ballot box. In the name of "saving the planet" and with billions of Federal research dollar behind them, we have witnessed a wholesale assault upon the standards of free inquiry. Peer reviews has been subverted; editors have been intimidated from freely publishing work/ideas the elite wishes to see squashed; Federal funding, directed by, and largely allocated to, members of the elite, ensure only pre-approved ideas are encouraged. etc. etc. etc.

In every way the warnings of Eisenhower are being played out before our eyes.

It's too bad so few of us know about this particular warning, isn't it? Especially as Eisenhower's warning seems to tell us this is the graver threat, as it is largely responsible for the military-industrial threat in the first place.