While there are a lot of things about the U.S. and post-industrialized society as a whole to be proud of, there are still things I read about that really disappoint me — things that make me wonder how we let ourselves fall into these situations and mindsets.
A firm called Public Policy Polling ran a poll asking participants whether or not they believed in a variety of different conspiracy theories. A whole 37% of Americans think global warming is a hoax. Twenty-eight percent believe in a "new world order." A fifth believe vaccines actually cause autism and 13% truly think the president is the Antichrist. An estimated 12.5 million believe lizard people control politics. I kid you not. One has to ask oneself, how the hell do so many people come to believe such ridiculous things? We're one of the most advanced nations on Earth yet we have millions and millions of citizens who actually believe things like Barack Obama is the Antichrist and there are lizard people, whatever the hell those are supposed to be, in our government. If that doesn't make you want to hit your head into your desk, I can't imagine what will.
Another sad state of affairs, this one affecting the whole world, is the ownership of our genes. Yes, the ownership of the tiny things inside us that make us who we are. Almost a fifth of our genes are under patents held by various companies, including those genes that are the key to terrible diseases like Alzheimer's. That means that anyone who wants to study, do research or experiments on, legally own, or do any other work with a patented gene has to get explicit permission and direction from the gene's patent holder. Any resulting scientific or medical breakthroughs are owned and controlled by the patent holder. Want to get your genes tested to make sure you don't have something awful like breast cancer? You can go only to the patent holder and pay their likely exorbitant prices. Despite the patent holders' claims that this encourages innovation, I imagine that any person in their right mind would see this as wrong — or at the very least suspicious and unfair. Companies should not have exclusive control over one of the most fundamental components of our bodies.
Again, while there's a lot to be proud of in modern society, bewildering things like Americans' liability for believing preposterous conspiracies and our allowing companies to patent and completely control anything to do with our genes can only make one wonder what is wrong with us.
A firm called Public Policy Polling ran a poll asking participants whether or not they believed in a variety of different conspiracy theories. A whole 37% of Americans think global warming is a hoax. Twenty-eight percent believe in a "new world order." A fifth believe vaccines actually cause autism and 13% truly think the president is the Antichrist. An estimated 12.5 million believe lizard people control politics. I kid you not. One has to ask oneself, how the hell do so many people come to believe such ridiculous things? We're one of the most advanced nations on Earth yet we have millions and millions of citizens who actually believe things like Barack Obama is the Antichrist and there are lizard people, whatever the hell those are supposed to be, in our government. If that doesn't make you want to hit your head into your desk, I can't imagine what will.
Another sad state of affairs, this one affecting the whole world, is the ownership of our genes. Yes, the ownership of the tiny things inside us that make us who we are. Almost a fifth of our genes are under patents held by various companies, including those genes that are the key to terrible diseases like Alzheimer's. That means that anyone who wants to study, do research or experiments on, legally own, or do any other work with a patented gene has to get explicit permission and direction from the gene's patent holder. Any resulting scientific or medical breakthroughs are owned and controlled by the patent holder. Want to get your genes tested to make sure you don't have something awful like breast cancer? You can go only to the patent holder and pay their likely exorbitant prices. Despite the patent holders' claims that this encourages innovation, I imagine that any person in their right mind would see this as wrong — or at the very least suspicious and unfair. Companies should not have exclusive control over one of the most fundamental components of our bodies.
Again, while there's a lot to be proud of in modern society, bewildering things like Americans' liability for believing preposterous conspiracies and our allowing companies to patent and completely control anything to do with our genes can only make one wonder what is wrong with us.
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