[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about how science, ethics, politics and ideology interact in the ruling paradigm to keep HR from inching towards their progressive realization.* (*: A paradigm is a way of looking at the here and now, a standard, a perspective or a set of ideas; accordingly, a paradigm shift is defined as an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way). For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
1. The influence of science and ethics in the ruling paradigm
- Science has become a productive force and submits to capitalist logic;
- it, therefore, in many ways, contributes to (or passes over) the problems we face today often coming up with solutions that do not touch Capitalism, i.e., more exclusion, more polarization, more inequality;
- all sciences are social and human, and only culture and a humanitarian outlook can (must) bring about the urgent reunion between ethics and truth –take artificial intelligence: AI symbolizes the superlative of the risks of technology without ethics;*
- modern science only answers questions that can be formulated scientifically, but many of the questions that make it possible to bring together the search for the good (ethically and politically) with the search for truth cannot be formulated scientifically;
- the potential of science for the fulfillment of human rights (HR) can thus only be appreciated if its limits and biases are made known. (Boaventura de Sousa Santos)
*: Ethics applies to all domains of human behavior. The ethics of the hegemonic powers in modern times was originally established and consolidated in Western cultures and then radiated throughout the world in the last two centuries. Let us be clear: science and technology (so central to ethics today) are, in reality, one and the same and are imposed on us as fundamental and decisive facts of modern life. The principles of science and technology may be universal but, not to forget: it is the ability to use them that is particular and decisive. (Oscar Gonzalez).
2. Beyond its production and application, science has become a matter of power; it has become a critical matter in the pursuit of profit. (Materne Maetz)
- This fact can inevitably lead to selecting scientific results that are useful for the purpose of the ruling paradigm, hiding others that are disturbing, or putting them in doubt even when they are proven and irrefutable;
- nowadays, there is a growing number of more or less sophisticated publications aiming at manipulating science with a specific –yet covert–objective;
- beyond conspiracist pamphlets, full of downright stupidities and spurious arguments, a more elaborate literature has developed that ‘looks serious’ in order to influence more effectively the way in which the public perceives or questions scientific statements;
- while science and innovation can be part of the solution to systemic crises faced by the world, they are also one of its causes;
- scientific research and its applications are far from keeping with the ideal image depicted by some as being: rational, neutral, consistent and fully dedicated to the development of knowledge in all fields… (M. Maetz) –wither HR.
3. In reality, science reflects the society in which it is produced.
- Nowadays, science is unequal, as it is produced for the benefit of the richest and most powerful countries and thus reinforces dependency of poor countries on technologies others are willing (or unwilling) to transfer to them;
- it is also unequal, because access to knowledge and technologies is difficult for the less favored population groups who are constrained by limited financial means;
- moreover, science is increasingly in the hands of large corporations that orient it towards fields and applications that are most likely to lead to goods and services that can be sold and be sources of profit;
- private interests are of growing importance in science –to the detriment of general interest– which explains precisely why technologies have become one of the causes of the major crises humankind is facing;
- corruption, manipulation, doctoring, deliberate lies, challenging scientific results and cynicism are some of the ways in which some actors, whether private or public, try to establish and reinforce their political and economic power. [Remember: Politics without ideas stimulate corruption. (Revista Primera Piedra)].
4. Main point here: The question is not to be for or against science. Rather, it requires to make science move forward so as to effectively contribute to the resolution of systemic crises. For this, science must be assessed not just from the economic point of view, but also from the other dimensions of sustainability, namely, social and environmental. To achieve this, science will have to be governed in a way that gives priority to the general interest of humanity rather than to vested interests, as is the case today. (M. Maetz)
5. The influence of politics and ideology in the paradigm.
- I see that some colleagues wear, with such perfection, the ideological/political mask they adopted at a certain moment of their earlier life yet they actually fail being the wo/man they pretended to be then. (Somerset Maugham);
- the eternal need to ensure social and political replication means older generations have long struggled to force their offspring into ideological submission –particularly under Capitalism in the West.** (Matt Broomfield);
- this is how political systems and social policies, in general, have worked and continue to work: there are only sick people, but society is not sick; there are poor people, but society is not sick…; there are ignorant people, but society is not ignorant; there are criminals, but society is not criminal… (Boaventura de Sousa Santos)
*: Western civilization hides under its showy facade a picture of hyenas and jackals. (Ernesto Che Guevara)
6. The Science/politics interface in the ruling paradigm.
- Paradigms fall into complete uselessness when trying to define the institutional nature of a country or the ideologies that sustain political parties and social movements (in the same way, declaring oneself socialist, liberal, conservative or progressive is of little use in the face of a reality as complex as the one that exists today);
- today, for the citizens who will have to cast their vote in the upcoming elections, it is impossible to distinguish the ideology of all the candidates;
- there is rather a massive distrust towards the entire political class;
- even more so when it is verified that the new leaders end up behaving in power like all their predecessors, not only in terms of their claiming the scientific paradigm to be on their side, but also in terms of abuses of power, embezzlement, nepotism and other vices;
- for a long time now, politics (as science?) has not been at the service of majorities, but rather is an attractive possibility to gain access to a well-paid (on or off the books) position and prestige;
- there is a flagrant ideological inconsistency though –nothing or very little remains of a de-facto ideological commitment to ‘the people’ in mainstream political actors, as well as in science practitioners. (Juan Pablo Cardenas)
7. Human rights badly off in the prevailing paradigm.
- Young people have ideals of which we are basically unaware;
- the new generation, tumultuous and aware of its strength, has not yet sufficiently come out to actively defend HR and proactively question the prevailing paradigm –for now, only its cries echo in the air;
- some of us older people try to convince ourselves that our time has not yet passed; the day will also come for us older brave defenders of HR when we will have to give up our post in the trenches.
8. All this gives me the deep feeling of being a member of a rather mystical brotherhood.
- In the past, I was unaware of what is contradictory in human nature and I did not know how much of sincerity is actually false, how much of nobleness is mean, and how much of friendship can be deceiving;
- but today, I find it regrettable that the offended morality of so many does not have a strong arm with which it can directly punish the violators of HR and the guardians of the paradigm, both always ready to crush any incipient desire to deviate from the herd;
- the fear of so many not being able/willing to call-out and act-against violators always produces in me a moral attitude of reprobation and a desire to instill more courage, particularly in the youth. (Adapted from S. Maugham)
Bottom line
–Silence does not necessarily arise from the lack of words, but from two worlds that never meet. (Carla Guelfenbein)
9. The overthrowing of an exhausted and done-in paradigm needs more leaders, not just readers, not just followers –new crops of leaders that will have to come from the young, from the thinking, from the sensitive, from new parts of the globe: To exercise the power of NO MORE! (Anwar Fazal) [Reminds me of what Angela Davis said, namely “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”. Rightly, Edward R. Murrow warned us: “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves”].
10. Does this all ring like yet more of my iron laws…?
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com