Science and it's idealistic fans on fb...

There is something terribly disturbing about the mindless accolades paid to "Science" and "scientific progress" on facebook. A sort of pop-style promotion aimed at a sixth grade reading level that intends to the playful but only achieves banal and inane. The younger generation is devoid of any historical consciousness, and so it is very easy to instill in them an unwavering devotion to the idealistic theory that science always improves the lot of humanity.

In fact, were it not for Hollerith punch card machines Nazi Germany could not have organized the systematic destruction of undesirables to include several million Jews during WWII.
Zyklon B was a form of "user friendly" cyanide gas originally intended for pest control but scaled to meet the demands of a extermination system that would spare the executioners the trouble and psychic distress of mass killing.

Considering how much science has progressed since the terrors of the last century perhaps it would be wise to curb our enthusiasm. The new century has barely begun, and doubtless there are new terrors that "science" is gestating. This sort of attitude of absolutist faith in science goes hand in hand with a kind of forced-march optimism, the latter a convenient cover for the west's own cultural and economic decay.

Ifuckinglovescience