By Donald
B. Ardell – August 16, 2009
This essay deals with the need for a high priority crash
REAL wellness campaign - a monumental undertaking as vigorous and sustained as
the Manhattan Project during WW II and the quest decades later "to land a
man on the moon and bring him safely back to the earth" (JFK). To make the case for such a national
campaign, I review three new books that highlight why America must overcome
scientific illiteracy and embrace reason and free inquiry.
Welcoa, the National Wellness Institute and other
organizations with an interest in worksite wellness campaigns should seek to
upgrade employee cognition capacities. It is well and good to do what they do now - promote health by reducing
high risk behaviors, that agenda is out of sync with the greatest need facing
the nation.
The real need is for a crash course in science appreciation,
followed by continuing education to fine-tune effective decision-making
capacities. Real wellness
educational efforts, in my view, should emphasize critical thinking
fundamentals that promote mental health as part of quality of life enhancement. This endeavor, like the moon landing
that some geniuses today think was a hoax, would be a giant step for
mankind. It would certainly be a
leap beyond computerized health risk appraisals, if adopted as the new priority
mission for worksite wellness.
Let's revisit the kind of worksite wellness I propose we
promote.
Start by asking yourself - "What kind of contributions
do YOU want to make?" How
many wellness promoters and wellness seekers really want to settle for an
agenda of risk reduction, prevention and medical management? Even a focus on exercise, nutrition,
stress management and the like seems negligent when the larger crises of
moronic citizenship is recognized. While traditional worksite wellness topics matter to a modest extent,
far greater problems with extraordinary consequences for our country invite a
more ambitious wellness agenda.
If the much larger, more exciting (but very much more
controversial) agenda of REAL wellness advancement via reason, exuberance and
liberty appeals, then you might want to order three books - post haste.
The first is "Science Under Siege: Defending Science,
Exposing Pseudoscience." While there are many excellent books on the sorry state of America's
woefully impoverished appreciation for science and reason, this jewel from the
pages of Skeptical Inquirer magazine deserves priority attention. Released by Prometheus Books and edited
by Kendrick Frazier, it contains articles from thirty years of Skeptical
Inquirer organized in three-parts: 1) science and skeptical inquiry; 2)
critical inquiry and public controversies and 3) understanding pseudoscience
and investigating claims. Not
counting the introduction and extensive reference sections, Science Under Siege
offers 39 superb essays. Any or
all would be worthy topics for study and reflection at REAL wellness worksite
forums.
Why should wellness promoters and others read books like
Science Under Siege? Let me put it
this way: Far too many citizens are easy prey for evangelists like Billy Graham
and Pat Robertson, New Age gurus like Deepak Chopra and Jack Canfield,
purveyors of extrasensory perception and alien visitations like Uri Geller and
Michael Tsarion, whacked out politicians like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin
and talk show bloviators like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. Polls consistently report large numbers
of Americans who claim not to believe in evolution, to take biblical verses
literally and to question fully documented modern facts, such as the Apollo
moon landing. Conspiracies abound
in good measure because people are easily fooled.
On the bright side of things, there are dozens of skilled
and entertaining science writers addressing this deficit in the American
character. We even have a
president now who has vowed to "restore science to its rightful
place." (A memorable phrase from President Obama's Inaugural address.)
A second book to consider in the Science Under Siege genre
that REAL wellness promoters should enjoy comes from Chris Hedges, author of
"Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of
Spectacle." Hedges describes
America as a nation in a state of illusion, composed of two societies.
"The smaller of the two functions in a print-based, literate world, copes
well enough with complexity and separates illusion from truth. The other, much
larger majority society has limited use for and even disdains a reality-based
world for one offering magical thinking and false certainties." This
partially explains the American public's fixation on celebrity scandals, deaths
and gossip, termed by Hedges as "the debauched revels of a dying culture." Mr. Hedges has been thinking about this
aspect of America for some time - his previous book, "Idiot America: How
Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free," suggests he should
have been among the 33 contributors to Science Under Siege.
Hedges' cautions are worth considering: "A culture that cannot distinguish
between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now. We will either wake
from our state of induced childishness, one where trivia and gossip pass for
news and information, one where our goal is not justice but an elusive and
unattainable happiness, to confront the stark limitations before us, or we will
continue our headlong retreat into fantasy."
The third book of note in the context of boosting thinking
skills is entitled "Unscientific America." This comes from Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum,
following an earlier similar work called "The Republican War on
Science." Both show how
religious forces, science-phobic politicians, a profit driven media and a
citizenry easily manipulated have created a hazardous state of affairs that
prevents action on pressing problems. The latter include climate change, an energy crisis, low economic
competitiveness, global pandemics and nuclear proliferation. Solutions to these
challenges require a citizenry educated in science. There is no such citizenry.
Mooney and Kirshebaum offer this example: "For every
five hours of cable news, less than a minute is devoted to science; 46 percent
of Americans reject evolution and think the Earth is less than 10,000 years
old; the number of newspapers with weekly science sections has shrunken by
two-thirds over the past several decades. The public is polarized over climate
change - an issue where political party affiliation determines one's view of
reality - and in dangerous retreat from childhood vaccinations. Meanwhile, only
18 percent of Americans have even met a scientist to begin with; more than half
can't name a living scientist role model."
There are five defining characteristics of stupidity. Recognizing and addressing these five
national deficiencies should, I believe, be part of the REAL wellness agenda:
1. Sheer
ignorance. This means not knowing
the facts about important events in the news and being clueless about who's in
charge. Only one in four Americans
can name two or more of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment
(i.e., freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of
grievances) and only one in 1000 can name all five. Of course, we do know the important stuff. For instance, more than half can name
at least two members of Simpson's five-member cartoon family (22 percent can
name all five).
2. Negligence. Americans are
not inclined to look to reliable sources of information about news events. (Fox
News is NOT reliable.)
3. Wooden-headedness. This
means an inclination to believe what people prefer to believe regardless of the
facts.
4. Shortsightedness. This
refers to support for public policies that are mutually contradictory or
contrary to the nation's long-term interests.
5. Bone-headedness. This is
described as a susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational
biases and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.
Well, what's a REAL wellness enthusiast supposed to
think? I'll tell you what I'm
thinking: "Are the Aussies granting work permits for Yanks these
days?" Just kidding - we need
to do what we can, at all levels, to promote better thinking skills here in
this country and we need to do it now. Where better to start than at worksites with expanded worksite
wellness? The time for REAL
wellness at all levels has arrived. The need is great - and the priority should be urgent.
All that aside, always remember - look on the bright side of
life.
Don Ardell is the Well Infidel. He favors evidence over faith, reason over revelation and
meaning and purpose over spirituality. His enthusiasm for reason, exuberance and liberty are reflected in his
books (14), newsletter (500 editions of a weekly report) and lectures across
North America and a dozen other countries. On July 26, he won his division in the National Sprint
Triathlon Championship in Newport Beach, CA. 