131 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
131 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 95
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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The following first ran as "Conspiracy for the Day", 09/29/93
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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AN EPIDEMIC OF NEGATION
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=======================
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...Our Positivists who deal so unceremoniously with every
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psychological phenomena... are like Samuel Butler's rhetorician,
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who
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"... could not ope
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His mouth, but out there flew a *trope*."
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We would there were no occasion to extend the critic's glance
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beyond the circle of triflers and pedants who improperly wear the
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title of men of science. But it is undeniable that the treatment
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of new subjects by those whose rank is high in the scientific
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world but too often passes unchallenged, when it is amenable to
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censure. The cautiousness bred of a fixed habit of experimental
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research, the tentative advance from opinion to opinion, the
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weight accorded to recognized authorities -- all foster a
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conservatism of thought which naturally runs into dogmatism. The
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price of scientific progress is too commonly the martyrdom or
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ostracism of the innovator. The reformer of the laboratory must,
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so to speak, carry the citadel of custom and prejudice at the
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point of the bayonet. It is rare that even a postern-door is
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left ajar by a friendly hand. The noisy protests and impertinent
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criticisms of the little people of the antechamber of science, he
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can afford to let pass unnoticed; the hostility of the other
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class is a real peril that the innovator must face and overcome.
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Knowledge does increase apace, but the great body of scientists
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are not entitled to the credit. In every instance they have done
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their best to shipwreck the new discovery, together with the
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discoverer. The palm is to him who has won it by individual
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courage, intuitiveness, and persistency. Few are the forces in
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nature which, when first announced, were not laughed at, and then
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set aside as absurd and unscientific. Humbling the pride of
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those who had not discovered anything, the just claims of those
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who have been denied a hearing until negation was no longer
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prudent, and then -- alas for poor, selfish humanity! these very
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discoverers too often became the opponents and oppressors, in
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their turn, of still more recent explorers in the domain of
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natural law! So, step by step, mankind move around their
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circumscribed circle of knowledge, science constantly correcting
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its mistakes, and readjusting on the following day the erroneous
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theories of the preceding one...
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What can we do? Shall we recall the disagreeable past? Shall we
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point to medieval scholars conniving with the clergy to deny the
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Heliocentric theory, for fear of hurting an ecclesiastical dogma?
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Must we recall how learned conchologists once denied that the
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fossil shells, found scattered over the face of the earth, were
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ever inhabited by living animals at all? How the naturalists of
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the eighteenth century declared these but mere *fac-similes* of
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animals? And how these naturalists fought and quarrelled and
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battled and called each other names, over these venerable mummies
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of the ancient ages for nearly a century, until Buffon settled
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the question by proving to the negators that they were mistaken?
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Surely an oyster-shell is anything but trancendental, and ought
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to be quite a palpable subject for any exact study...
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There exists a certain work which might afford very profitable
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reading for the leisure hours of skeptical men of science. It is
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a book published by Flourens, the Perpetual Secretary of the
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French Academy, called *Histoire des Recherches de Buffon*. The
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author shows in it how the great naturalist combated and finally
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conquered the advocates of the *fac-simile* theory; and how they
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still went on denying everything under the sun, until at times
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the learned body fell into a fury, an epidemic of negation. It
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denied Franklin and his refined electricity; laughed at Fulton
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and his concentrated steam; voted the engineer Perdonnet a
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strait-jacket for his offer to build railroads; stared Harvey out
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of countenance; and proclaimed Bernard de Palissy "as stupid as
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one of his own pots!"
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In his oft-quoted work, *Conflict between Religion and Science*,
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Professor Draper shows a decided propensity to kick the beam of
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the scales of justice, and lay all such impediments to the
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progress of science at the door of the clergy alone. With all
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respect and admiration due to this eloquent writer and scientist,
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we must protest and give every one his just due. Many of the
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above-enumerated discoveries are mentioned by the author of the
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*Conflict*. In every case he denounces the bitter resistance on
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the part of the clergy, and keeps silent on the like opposition
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invariably experienced by every new discoverer at the hands of
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science. His claim on behalf of science that "knowledge is
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power" is undoubtedly just. But abuse of power, whether it
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proceeds from excess of wisdom or ignorance is alike obnoxious in
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its effects. Besides, the clergy are silenced now [ca. 1877].
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Their protests would at this day be scarcely noticed in the world
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of science. But while theology is kept in the background, the
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scientists have seized the sceptre of despotism with both hands,
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and they use it, like the cherubim and flaming sword of Eden, to
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keep the people away from the tree of immortal life and within
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this world of perishable matter.
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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[From *Isis Unveiled* by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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