Those of you who have been regular readers of this blog know that we’ve recently been through a winter of discontent and spent some time south of the border. Now that spring has arrived in Michigan I thought it was time to give my blog a facelift with new header images, a new title, and new overarching theme: Embracing Reality. The theme is a result of my having been influenced by a saying from Byron Katie’s book, Loving What Is, in which she says that When you argue with reality, you lose—but only 100 percent of the time. If you’ve been reading my blog and my postings on Facebook, you are doubtless aware of the recurring concerns: holistic health, linguistics (especially NLP, hypnosis, and framing), agribusiness, and politics.
Those subjects will remain a central focus. It took me a while to figure out that what they have in common is that they require a greater awareness of reality. One of the problems with reality is, of course, that it isn’t always obvious. It seemed logical to our early ancestors that the world was essentially flat with the sun and moon in orbit around it. When Copernicus and, later, Galileo disagreed, they were ridiculed. At this point, most of us—even if not all of us—know that they were right. We also should know that the best evidence at any particular point in time may lead to incorrect conclusions. Also, it is not always clear how much evidence is necessary to prove a particular point true or false.
One of the ongoing debates in the States at this time is whether vaccinations are safe. Established medical opinion is that vaccinations are perfectly safe, while the “anti-vaxxers,” those opposed to routine vaccinations, believe that vaccinations cause autism and various other ills. A number of physicians, including Dr. Sherry Tenpenny are absolutely convinced that vaccines cause more harm than good. Is she the Galileo of our time? At this point in history, we are too close to the trees to see the forest, but we’re not without evidence, even if we are viewing the situation with the modern equivalent of Galileo’s hand-built telescope.
We do have evidence that shows that vaccinations can prevent illness. I’m glad I was vaccinated for small pox as a child and, as a young adult, for polio, two diseases I am glad to have avoided. As a child I had measles, mumps, and chicken pox. When I was in the military, I was vaccinated for pretty much everything, including plague (another disease I’m glad to have skipped). I don’t think I ever had whooping cough, nor do I think I was vaccinated for it. The main thing to note here is that my personal record doesn’t prove anything. We need a lot more cases to make a case….
One of the main concerns in the press about vaccinations is that “they” (I don’t know whether one, some, or all are suspect) cause autism. Although autism has been increasing in recent years, it doesn’t seem as though vaccinations could be the cause—unless it is parental vaccinations that are causing the problem. One thing we do know (actual evidence) is that the brain abnormalities associated with autism can be observed in fetuses still in the womb. If autism predates vaccination, it is unlikely that vaccinations were the cause. If not vaccinations, what might be the cause? My guess—and it is just a guess—is that environmental pollutants might be the cause. Environmental pollutants have been increasing steadily since the turn of the 20th century, and we don’t (yet) really have a good idea of how environmental pollutants influence DNA.
Although vaccinations are probably not the cause of autism, that doesn’t prove they are perfectly safe. One of the problems at this point is that those promoting vaccinations are working very hard to sell them using the power of government and the law to get everyone to comply (children have to have them to go to most schools, for example). Those whose children have reacted badly to vaccines and those who are fearful of having their children vaccinated have a difficult time being heard. One of my questions about the issue is, if the vaccines really work, why would having unvaccinated children in a school be a problem? Wouldn’t those who had been vaccinated be protected against any illness the unvaccinated might bring into a school?
Another problem is that unbiased information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines is difficult to find, and not all of it is easily accessible to those without medical training. In some ways, that’s similar to Galileo’s problem: convincing people that the earth is in orbit around the sun when the government and the Church insist otherwise and the earth seems flat to the uneducated.
We’re seeing the same sort of thing with GMO crops. It is easy to find evidence showing that GMO crops have increased yields, especially for corn and soybeans. Humans have, of course, been altering plants ever since we’ve been planting. Nearly everything that grows has been modified by human tinkering. What makes today’s GMO crops different from our grandparents’ GMOs is we’re now doing gene splicing to change the basic biology of plants. Sometimes, as is the case with “golden rice,” the result solves an age-old problem. The genetically modified rice provides people who would otherwise be deficient with Vitamin A. In other cases, it may cause more problems that it solves. Corn and other crops have been genetically modified to withstand stronger herbicides and pesticides. That does increase yields and profits for agribusiness. We don’t really know, however, what the genetically modified crops are doing to those of us who eat them. Furthermore, the weeds and bugs are proving increasingly resistant to the herbicides and pesticides necessary to produce the higher yields.
Anyone old enough to remember the problems associated with our use of Agent Orange in Vietnam knows that herbicides—especially the strong ones—are not good for animals, including humans. What a lot of people don’t realize is that RoundUp, a popular weed-killer intended for home use, is essentially Agent Orange with a new name. Just as the overuse of antibiotics has led to a reduction in their efficacy, the overuse of herbicides is leading to a reduction in their efficacy. In short, the weeds are winning.
Vaccinations and GMO crops have two things in common: (1) they represent huge profits for certain enterprises and individuals, and (2) they have an “army” of lobbyists working to ensure that we little choice. The way the Roman Catholic Church got Galileo to recant the “heresy” of a heliocentric universe (as opposed to the geocentric view held by the Church) was to threaten him with torture. To the best of my knowledge no one who has objected to vaccinations or GMOs has been tortured, that doesn’t mean those who disagree with the current prevailing views aren’t being subjected to a variety of pressures to “get with the program.” It took the Church 500 years to get around to admitting that Galileo was right. When you argue with reality, you lose, but it may take a very long time—and there’s a lot of money to be made in the meantime.
