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press any experiments or exploration that even mentioned genetics. Biologists that tried to promote the study of genetics were thrown into the gulags or just disappeared.
Under Lysenko's guidance, science was guided not by the most likely theories, backed by appropriately controlled experiments, but by the desired ideology. Science was practiced in the service of the State, or more precisely, in the service of ideology. The results were predictable: the steady deterioration of Soviet biology. Lysenko's methods were not condemned by the Soviet scientific community until 1965, more than a decade after Stalin's death. [3]
One reason Lysenkoism had such a strong hold in the Soviet Union was because they strongly desired a "proletarian" biology that was better than the degenerate western biology. Later Mao Tse-Tung picked up the tenets of Lysenkoism and he used it to reorganize Chinese agriculture based on the faulty science of Lysenko. The result was the deaths of over 30 million Chinese in the 1950s by famine because the theory was simply wrong.
Other periods of human history have required science to take second place to ideology including during Galileo's time when he was denounced for promoting the theory that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the other way around. Much of the dark ages were enthralled to Aristotle's scientific theories rather than any direct observation. So while in the Asian and Islamic worlds, human knowledge was advancing and changing because people could practice good science, Europeans were trapped in an ideological straightjacket because they were trained to ignore their observations and believe what was handed down on high. Using ideology rather than observed data is guaranteed to lead to bad science.
Today, the Bush administration's approach to science is like Lysenko's. Their record of starting from a result they want and simply forcing the data to fit that result are numerous. Their ideological approach results in a number of policies that defy common sense. And their campaign contributors or their religious base sets our government's scientific goals.
Therefore, we have abstinence-only programs in schools where every study shows these programs are ineffective in preventing sexual activity, pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. Our government refuses to believe that global warming is a concern and even suppresses reports or scientific studies that provide information about the growing problem. They rewrite the clean air laws and the clean water laws so as to weaken them and to make it easier for industry to avoid taking responsibility for our environment. They have suppressed scientific reports by governmental scientists that might hurt their industrial backers. For instance, after 9/11 they suppressed the EPA reports showing the air around the fallen towers was highly toxic and lied to the survivors and those working in that area. In another case, they refused to let an Agricultural microbiologist with a national reputation publish or speak about his study that showed pig factory farms were producing antibiotic-resistance bacteria that was making people sick. [4]
Our government has a duty to allow our public-sector scientists to practice sound science. Americans expect their government to use tax dollars funding our public agencies to protect our interests and to improve our lives. The Bush administration has proven they are unwilling to do this and in fact, that they are actively hostile to good science if it interferes with their ideology. No wonder they are being branded as practicing Lysenkoism.
For more information:
[1] The Lie Factory (Mother Jones, February/March 2004)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_405.html
[2] Scientific Integrity in Policymaking (Union of Concerned Scientists, February 2004)
http://www2.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/page.cfm?pageID=1322
[3] Lysenkoism (The Skeptical Dictionary)
http://skepdic.com/lysenko.html
[4] The Junk Science of George W. Bush (The Nation, March 8, 2004)
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040308&s=kennedy
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