Back to the future

Techno-junkies, but anti-science; conspiracy minded, but gullible; cynical, but superstitious. These are some of the contradictions I see in people around me. Constantly on their Blackberry's, jabbering about Botox and whether to innoculate their children. Big pharma is screwing them, but quantum quacks are trusted. AGW is a conspiracy, but they call up the dead. Their tolerance for cognitive dissonance must be off the scale.

Eighty years ago the poet C. Louis Leipoldt decried quackery and superstition in South Africa. Yet those I know from that era, including my parents (father, 85 and mother, 79) who had no training in science, have a great appreciation of science and a fair amount of general knowledge about the ideas of the Curie's, Einstein, Darwin and Bohr. They grew up in a time when people were excited by science and new discoveries. They seem less gullible than most younger people I have contact with. Evidence? No, I have no specific evidence - just observation. Yes, that is subject to confirmation bias and may well be inaccurate, but I don't think it is.

The older people I know trust mainstream medicine (OK, they have a weakness for homeopathy), consider Chopra's quantum quackery to be bullshit, find The Secret hilarious and consider John Edwards to be a charlatan. They experienced the tragedy of terrible illnesses such as polio and diptheria. They had the good sense to see that their children (us) were immunized when vaccines became available, as we did for ours. They did not look to celebrities for advice in matters of science and medicine.

I repeat this graphic I used earlier - are we on our way down?