Unelected bureaucrats have taken control of sections of our government and are dictating what we can and cannot do. Lord Fauci and other heads of agencies aside from NIAID, CDC, HHS, FDA. Fauci is in control of funding for these agencies as well as what Big Pharma “donates” for research where they expect their medicines will be approved.
President
Eisenhower’s farewell address warned about science as an appeal to authority
The COVID-19 pandemic
and debates about energy policy and climate change highlight a troubling trend
among many liberals to use science as an appeal to authority to stifle
important debates about public policy, rather than a system of obtaining
knowledge through trial and error.
Liberal policymakers
often claim they are “following the science” to justify unpopular and costly
public policies and to label anyone who disagrees with them as a “denier.”
President Eisenhower’s
farewell address to the nation on January 17, 1961, which is often referred to
as his “Military Industrial Complex” speech, issued a stark warning about the
influence of federal funding of scientific research, and how this could
unjustly influence public policy.
Akin to, and largely
responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has
been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution,
research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and
costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction
of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary
inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of
scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free
university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific
discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly
because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a
substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now
hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of
domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations,
and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific
research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the
equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of
a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to
balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the
principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our
free society.
Science is our greatest tool for furthering the human condition, but it is not immune to corruption and influence peddling. Eisenhower astutely warned against these dangers. You can watch the speech for yourself below.
Transcript
of President Dwight D. Eisenhowers Farewell Address (1961)
My fellow Americans:
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I
shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn
ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking
and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all
who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed
with peace and prosperity for all.
Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement
on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the
future of the Nation.
My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote
and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West
Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war
period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight
years.
In this final relationship, the Congress and the
Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the
national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the
business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the
Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to
do so much together.
II
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that
has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our
own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most
influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of
this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige
depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military
strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human
betterment.
III
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic
purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement,
and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations.
To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any
failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to
sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened
by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention,
absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology-global in scope, atheistic
in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the
danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully,
there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of
crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and
without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty
at stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted
course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether
foreign or domestic, great or small,there is a recurring temptation to feel
that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to
all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense;
development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a
dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these and many other
possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only
way to the road we which to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader
consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national
programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between
cost and hoped for advantage-balance between the clearly necessary and the
comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation
and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between
action of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment
seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and
frustration.
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people
and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have
responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in
kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.
IV
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military
establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no
potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
Our military organization today bears little relation to
that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting
men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States
had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and
as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency
improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent
armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million
men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually
spend on military security more than the net income of all United State
corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a
large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total
influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every
state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the
imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its
grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is
the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced
power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger
our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only
an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and
goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in
our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during
recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also
becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is
conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has
been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing
fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead
of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the
conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government
contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every
old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by
Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect,
as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that
public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological
elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to
integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our
democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
V
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element
of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must
avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and
convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the
material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their
political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all
generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
VI
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America
knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community
of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual
trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must
come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we
are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred
by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the
battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a
continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not
with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp
and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this
field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the
horror and the lingering sadness of war-as one who knows that another war could
utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built
over thousands of years-I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in
sight.
Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady
progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be
done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help
the world advance along that road.
VII
So-in this my last good night to you as your President-I
thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in
war and peace. I trust that in that service you find somethings worthy; as for
the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.
You and I-my fellow citizens-need to be strong in our faith
that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we
be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power,
diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression
to America's prayerful and continuing inspiration:
We
pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great
human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it
to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual
blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy
responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will
learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made
to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples
will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual
respect and love.
