Question

Thomas Jefferson wrote "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government" (Jefferson, T. Letter to Richard Price, January 8, 1789.)

This phrase is the heart of American Democracy and much like Adam Smith's invisible hand guide the economic marketplace, there is an invisible hand of the people's will that guide local, state, and national affairs.

However, today that invisible hand seems confused and indecisive. Congress is paralyzed and unable to act on many key issues that not only threaten the U.S.A. but issues that threaten the planet. Ideology and rhetoric increasingly guide policy; replacing fact and reason and the America we now know seems divide and angry, defiantly embracing unreason.

Over the course of the next forty years, science is poised to create more knowledge than humans have created in all of recorded history.

At the same time we are facing challenges that include climate change and energy; ocean acidification and overfishing; biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation; pandemics and biosecurity management (think ebola); freshwater resource management; transportation; waste management; chemical, biological, nanotechnological, and genetic pollution (think atrazine), population control; national security, science education and economic competitiveness; and economic growth on a finite planet.

We have a tremendous opportunity to be a shining light on a hill, a beacon, an example to the rest of the world if we but use facts, and science to deal with these issues.

Here is the rub...

In some places in the US the science literacy is less than 15%. That means less that 15% of the population is able to understand science enough to implement it in a way that is helpful to society.

Our Congress; less than 2% of congress has a scientific background. They are lawyers who are trained to win arguments, not discover truth.

My questions is; at what point will we no longer have enough scientific literacy to be trusted with our own government? I do not ever want to get to that point yet there are well organized, well finances groups that are pushing us toward not only scientific illiteracy but ignorance and a lack of education as well. They put huge demands on students and then do not give them the resources they need to be successful.

Share your thoughts about how close/far we are from no longer having enough science literacy to be trusted with our own government. There are no wrong answers but I would like to see some thought.

I am not asking if we can trust our government, I am asking if we have enough science literacy to be trusted with our own government. Meaning, do we know enough science to be informed citizens and vote appropriately. What happens when a political party denies science (all political parties do this in one way or another so this is not a jab at any particular party)?

Answer 1

In a democracy, every citizen’s voice counts equally and the direction of the country is steered by the will of its people. Thus a healthy democracy is based on the premise that the people are well-informed, able to think critically for themselves, and thus capable of making wise and rational decisions.

In our societies, science plays a massive role in shaping the way of the ancient society to its present civilized form. From reproductive rights to investment in renewable and non-renewable forms of energy to our schools’ education curriculum to the growing role of automation in the job market to almost anything you can think of – relies on science and technology.  Therefore, it is alarming how much the public lacks scientific literacy.

The first step is to realize the significance of scientific literacy in everyday life and to our role as active, civically engaged citizens. Realizing and understanding that everything we come into contact now has its basis in science: our energy bills, our data plans, the water we drink, the public health standards that allow us to live without fear of invisible toxins in our food, our access to medical treatments, and more. we must embrace the necessity of scientific knowledge and seek information from sources outside of just political campaigns, which are often rife with oversimplifications and biased fact-selection.

Nonetheless, avoiding science or engaging with it only from a narrow perspective turns a blind eye to our civic duty to be informed, potentially driving us to immaturely and irresponsibly give up agency over our own decisions and lives. I think  the average citizen should be able to think like a scientist – to use the scientific method to frame, analyse, research, investigate, experiment, observe and critique a question and its findings, to be critical thinkers in all aspects of life, to question relentlessly in search of the underlying truth, to collect information before drawing conclusions, and to prevent oneself from being blinded by one’s beliefs when confronted with concrete evidence or sound newly-presented findings then only can a democracy be effective.