Author: Aaron Weber

Protect me from what I want

I was thinking about Jenny Holzer yesterday. Of course, I can never remember her name. I have to try to remember one of those pithy little statements and search for them. So today I looked them up and found an extensive, perhaps complete, list of Jenny Holzer’s truisms.

I remember the first time I saw anything by her. It was a 7th grade trip to Washington DC and I was one of a few kids who opted to go to the Hirshhorn instead of the Air&Space museum in the afternoon, and I somehow wandered off alone into a little side room and there were these marble plaques and benches with words carved into them. Things that seemed true and deep and also vaguely disturbing: “TEASING PEOPLE SEXUALLY CAN HAVE UGLY CONSEQUENCES.”

And then, behind me, in a corner, a monitor came to life and started playing Laurie Anderson’s video of “O Superman.” To this day it’s one of the best art experiences I have ever had. It’s why I keep going back to contemporary art museums looking for things that will shake me and make me shiver.

Bariatric Surgery Follow-on

In the past, I’ve wondered whether bariatric surgery is a good idea because it’s a surgical solution to a psychological problem. As former overeaters switch to alcohol, casual sex, and shopping, they’re having the same questions. Ultimately, the fact is that the surgery can be really helpful, but it has to be part of a comprehensive treatment. All too often, it’s not.

Values Voters

JFleck points out that nuclear-power industry welcomes the acknowledgement of global warming with open arms. That makes sense, although that doesn’t do anything to make it more or less true. But then John makes an observation that’s quite a bit broader. He quotes Roger Pielke Jr. saying “There is no such thing as decisions driven by science. Decisions are always driven by values.”

While it’s true that decisions are driven by values, you can’t have a genuinely values-based decision until you are honest about the science, and let the science form the bedrock for your decision.

For example: tobacco. A reasonable decision about tobacco would begin by acknowledging that tobacco is bad for you, and would weigh the right of individuals to endanger their own health and the state’s obligation to provide for the common welfare. You might come to any number of decisions from that debate, but you would start with the science. As we know, the tobacco debate in the US instead was a circus in which the tobacco industry funded dishonest studies and denied the truth as much as possible. We’ve seen similarly dishonest attacks on the science that underlies sound policymaking in the case of alcohol, marijuana, asbestos, leaded gasoline, birth control, sex education, abortion, and global warming, to name just a few.

Obviously, politics and values and belief influence all policy debates and decisions. But to attack the foundation of a just decision, to tamper with evidence, to corrupt or deny the truth for partisan gain– that is beyond the pale. That is what we condemn when we speak out in favor of science-based policy.