It is widely said and believed that the last hundred years or so have seen the highest progress in science and technology, a trend that is believed to be continuing further into the future and likely to accelerate.

The age of science and technology is supposed to be the age of rationality and rational, evidence-based decision making.

However if we consider more carefully, rationality and evidence-based decision making have been increasingly discarded in recent times in the middle of technology booms. 

The most obvious example of this is that at the level of the entire world, there is now a very real human-made survival crisis in the sense that the basic life-nurturing conditions of earth are threatened, partly by a range of about a dozen serious environmental problems including climate change, partly by the accumulation of about 13,000 nuclear weapons and development of other very dangerous weapons as well.

While the facts of this survival crisis have been well-established and several top scientists including Nobel laureates have been warning regarding this individually as well as in joint statements, the record of humanity and more particularly its top leadership in recent decades has been of either not giving proper attention and priority to this most important of all issues, or else even frequently taking actions and making policies that will aggravate and worsen this survival crisis in several ways. What can be more irrational behavior? When all the life-forms including the entire humanity are so threatened, continuing to neglect the most important issues or what is worse, continuing to behave in ways that will aggravate the situation can only be called the most extreme non-rational behavior.

The lack of rationality is actually evident very much in the decisions ironically of some of the most educated societies and technologically advanced countries. The USA has very high levels of education and high technology, and has some of the most highly reputed universities and high-tech centers of the world. Despite this, its decision making has been increasingly devoid of rationality. Its natural resource base, geographical location and historical circumstances had all combined to create a unique situation in the post war period in which its enlightened world leadership would have been readily accepted by most people and countries of the world. But the USA lost the best of opportunities for this as well as the goodwill of the greater part of the world by needlessly getting involved in too many aggressions and wars which were avoidable for the most part.

After the collapse of the Soviet union and the end of the Cold War around 1990, such a great opportunity for gaining peace-based and enlightened leadership appeared once again before the USA in even more favorable conditions, but this too was allowed to slip by getting entangled in one war and aggression after another.

Europe also had a very good opportunity around 1990 to prepare a new security architecture for the continent inclusive of Russia.

This would have ensured peace and increased development opportunities like never before.

Instead Europe missed this opportunity and subsequently opted for even more irrational hostility to Russia, to the extent that even when President Trump in his second term initially appeared to be favoring an early end of the Ukraine war, Europe instead of advancing these prospects acted very irrationally to obstruct these, thereby increasing economic, energy and security problems.

Israel is another country with high levels of education and technology skills that has acted in the most irrational ways. Due to the horrible sufferings inflicted on Jews during the Second World War, the people of Israel had sympathy of a significant part of the world initially despite the injustice caused to the Palestinians in the course of the establishment of Israel.

However instead of taking conciliation steps towards a sincere two state solution as recommended by the greater part of the world, Israel went from one aggression to another to deny any justice based solutions for Palestinians, culminating in the recent genocide which has alienated Israel from all forces of justice and justice-based peace. The lack of rationality in such aggressions is evident from the fact that after alienating most countries of the region and the world with its relentless and unjustified aggressions, it will become increasingly difficult for the small country to ensure a future of peace and well-being for its own people as well.

A question arises therefore why countries with high levels of education and technology have been unable to take rational and evidence-based decisions on some of the most important issues? Even if a few decision makers in top positions were behaving irrationally, why adequate checks and balances were not available in these countries? Why did the public opinion not become strong enough to ensure that corrective steps towards rational and evidence-based decisions were taken? This could not happen in the context of many crucial issues, and those who had emerged from some of the most prestigious universities and educational centers entered top decision making positions only to push their countries in the direction of harmful and non-rational policy and decisions.

This makes it clear that scientific progress in the wider sense of policy making being guided by evidence-based and rational, careful thinking has not yet taken firm roots. It in this sense that scientific approach and temperament are more needed than in the  more visible aspects of life being guided and comforted by too many gadgets, machines and now AI.

*

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071, Planet in Peril and Man over Machine. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: The fires engulfing the Amazon rain forest are a sign that the Earth is approaching an environmental and ecological “tipping point” that all of humanity must work together to avoid, the U.N.’s top biodiversity expert said Friday. (Photo: ©Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace)

Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.