The Galli Report: 06.25.21
Why we distrust science now. Modern child sacrifice. Perseverance isn't pretty. Watching blue tit birds doing their amazing thing.
Why We Distrust Science Now
Last year, after a few months of COVID, when a government official would say, “We’re going to follow the science,” I began to roll my eyes. It’s not that I don’t believe in science or that we shouldn’t listen to what research tells us. It’s just that they used “science” to deny gatherings that didn’t gain their sympathy, but then allowed other gatherings that did. Political officials have the perfect right to decide what policies should or should not issue forth from scientific knowledge, but they shouldn’t pretend their decisions are based solely or primarily on objective science.
It’s one of the many reasons, for the cloud now hanging over science. “Scientific Authority and the Democratic Narrative: How did we arrive at this crisis of scientific authority?” examines other reasons.
On a range of issues—from climate change and vaccination to evolution and nutrition—America now teems with popular movements whose central aim is the rejection of one or another scientific finding or position. COVID-19 has further dramatized these tensions, driving antipathies between scientific experts and the sundry movements commonly referred to as “populist” out onto the streets.
Modern Child Sacrifice
A related domain—academia—also has a cloud hanging over it. We’ve read plenty about how conformity to progressive politics has undermined the pursuit of truth. But there’s another dimension that’s deeply troubling as well, outlined in “The Gods of Academia: Child Sacrifice in the Ivory Tower.”
There is something mind-exploding about trying to succeed in academia. For me, graduate school was like juggling eight flaming torches: research, publishing, teaching, departmental engagement, my personal health, job applications, church, and family life. For all the torches I managed to keep in the air, there were several on the ground starting fires. The impossibility of balancing the academic grind and my child’s needs was inescapable.
Perseverance Isn’t Pretty
Here’s a nice reminder at the Mockingbird site: “Trials may indeed produce endurance. It’s a mistake, however, to think that endurance always leads to obvious, glorious successes.” In the piece, author David Clay’s plays with an analogy of sports teams’ losing streaks, which helps me confront the reality of his larger point.
Sometimes a losing streak is just a losing streak: No one’s going to make a movie about the 2019 Detroit Tigers, who went 47-114 and were mathematically eliminated from play-off contention with well over a month to go in the season.
Blue Tit Birds Are Amazing
That’s all I have from this week (the late breaking controversy over President Biden and Catholic Communion will be discussed next week, when I’ve digested it more). One thing you can count on: I will not post something that I don’t find personally interesting. I’m not going to link to important-but-boring pieces—the internet is chock full of such. You don’t need the Galli Report for that sort of thing.
Let’s end on two longish videos (by GR standards) that captivated me this week. In the first, “From empty nest to first egg in less than 8 minutes!” we watch a blue tit prepare a nest for her eggs. In the second, “First Egg Hatching to Chicks Fledging - 21 days in 21 mins,” we see the baby birds hatch and mother and father feeding them. Simply amazing, to me anyway.
Grace and peace,
Mark Galli
markgalli.com