Astronomy

16 ASTRONOMY • SEPTEMBER 2017

O

n April 22, I was

one of 40,

people who

gathered near

the Washington

Monument for the March for

Science. The weather that day

was rainy and cold, a good

match for the concerns that had

brought us together. Even so,

spirits were amazingly upbeat.

It felt more like a party than a

protest. Not even the occasional

heckler promising eternal dam-

nation could provoke much

other than a smile and a wave.

Hand-drawn signs were as

nerdy as they were ubiquitous. I

think my personal favorite was,

“At the start of every disaster

movie, there’s a scientist being

ignored.” Marching down

Constitution Avenue toward the

Capitol, people joined voices in

call and response to a drum-

mer’s cadence. “What do we

need?” “Evidence-based policy!”

“When do we need it?” “After

peer review!”

Hardly a pithy political slo-

gan, I know. What can I say?

Political activism isn’t really our

gig, and to be honest, scientists

aren’t very good at it. It’s

nowhere near as cool as the stuff

going on in the lab! But more

and more scientists are discov-

ering that even they have their

limits. When it sinks in that the

White House prefers “alterna-

tive facts” to the real thing, and

will fervently declare that 2 + 2

= 4 is “fake news” if they want it

to equal 5 instead, a scientist’s

head is likely to explode. When

that happens, the next question

is what to do about it.

Some scientists wring their

hands about not politicizing

FORYOURCONSIDERATION
BY JEFF HESTER

Cassandra

smiling

Science, politics, and

a march in the rain.

science. “If we just stay above

the fray and explain ourselves

calmly and clearly,” they insist,

“people will f lock to our oh-so-

well-reasoned arguments.”

Really? You’ve been trying that

for a while now. How’s that

working out for you? Ummm...

didn’t think so.

Scientists pride themselves

on their ability to see reality as

it is, regardless of how they

would like it to be. Here is one

of those realities: People aren’t

rational. There is a lot of really

cool research supporting that

statement. Daniel Kahneman

won the 2002 Nobel Memorial

Prize in Economics for showing

that the whole notion of “ratio-

nal man” is a bunch of hooey.

We base our judgments and

decisions far less on reason

than we do on how they feel.

That statement is as true

for scientists as it is for anybody

else. Scientists search for real

answers because we are

emotionally invested in know-

ing what those answers are.

Of course we look at all of the

data! Of course we challenge

our ideas! Evidence and

reason matter!

Or at least they matter to us.

We feel those emotions as

strongly as any preacher in a

pulpit. What we fail to realize is

that most people don’t.

The human brain evolved

to help us survive. Period. In

our evolutionary past, things

like power, influence, and

acceptance by a group mattered

far more than devotion to care-

ful review of the evidence.

Today it’s not that people are

incapable of understanding

something like global warming.

They just aren’t as emotionally

attached to the whole evidence

thing as scientists are.

Confronted with a conflict

between evidence and higher

emotional priorities, most peo-

ple will eighty-six reality in a

heartbeat, and in the next

heartbeat rationalize it all away.

Which brings us to why the

March for Science was such an

uplifting event.

There we were, standing in

the rain with our T-shirts and

our signs, protesting against

policies that promise dire con-

sequences for the nation and

human civilization as a whole.

Today’s scientists are the

descendants of Cassandra, see-

ing the devastation that always

comes from ignoring reality,

but frustrated that our voices

are not being heard.

Yet our spirits were joyous!

Scientists are reality junkies.

We get high on knowledge, and

on the adventure of pulling

back the curtain to discover

how the universe works. There

was an emotional bond span-

ning the globe that day. Crowds

gathered to declare their com-

mon support not for one issue

or another, but for something

they all held sacred — seeing

the world as it is.

There are things that an

experienced political organizer

might criticize about the

March for Science, but most

would agree that it was pretty

amazing for an international

event that started just a few

months earlier as a conversa-

tion on social media. When I

look at the March for Science,

what I see is hope.

Science is powerful, and the

world desperately needs scien-

tists to raise our voices and

demand to be heard. The

March provided scientists with

a taste of what it is like to set

aside differences and join

together, arm in arm, in defense

of reason. Such camaraderie

feels good to us naked apes.

The March also sent many onto

the battlefield upon which

hearts and minds are won and

lost. Those battles are emo-

tional, they are strategic, and

they are political. It is unscien-

tific to pretend otherwise.

BROWSE THE “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION” ARCHIVE AT http://www.Astronomy.com/Hester.

Jeff Hester is a keynote speaker,

coach, and astrophysicist.

Follow his thoughts at

jeff-hester.com.

The author spends a rainy day in Washington, D.C., with 40,000 like-minded friends

near the west portico of the U.S. Capitol. JEFF HESTER