Yes, Palin is Evangelical and not a Christian Scientist, and [as certainly has been proven, at the very least, by Mary Baker Eddy’s tenets] Christian Science is a contradiction in terms. It’s also easy to be intellectually consistent when you don’t have much of an intellect to start with. Yet, it’s Palin’s W.-like intellectual incuriosity which may ultimately prove itself to be ultimately less malign than true intellectual dishonesty rampant in more rarefied quarters.
In case you have actually followed my blog history and noticed the absolute 180 I did on Palin—it was because of the Couric interviews, when I realized what Peggy Noonan had intuited: that Palin’s vacuity and absolute enthrallment with her newfound celebrity presented the worst possible public image for conservatives and conservatism, at the worst possible time. Especially for me: I was so depressed by what I saw that I couldn’t write anything for a month and a half, much less bring myself to vote for McCain; I sat out the vote]. So I have no love lost for her—because she made ME look bad just as I was starting out and I blame her for MY loss of credibility.
However, a hybrid of Dan Quayle and Jessica Simpson is an easy sell in today’s US; and, despite the general consensus [with which I agree] that even the perception of Palin as the Republican front-runner is ultimately not good for conservatism [1], the events surrounding a certain series of emails emerging from the University of East Anglia [2] actually indicate how much more dangerous intellectual dishonesty is when individuals that actually possess a certain degree of intellectual acuity misuse it for partisan ends.
In a certain sense it might be hard to fathom why the scientific community has thrown its considerable weight behind the notion that the West—particularly the US—owes reparations to everyone else, and has chosen the vehicle of reducing our reliance on technology and industry so that anyone who hasn’t been as fortunate can benefit. It also isn’t the first time that “hard” science has prostituted itself for blatantly dubious political ends, most notoriously in the first half of this century when the scientific community essentially spearheaded eugenics and was almost directly responsible for widespread racial murder. [Many a Nazi commented that they were simply picking up where Cold Spring Harbor left off.]
One wonders whether this is their convoluted way of making up for it. In the process, however, they’re in danger of becoming just a fundamentalist as Palin, turning science into Christianity. And they don’t have her excuse.
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6636563/University-of-East-Anglia-emails-the-most-contentious-quotes.html
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