Monday, April 10, 2006
Amazing speech on fear and panic
While looking into the talk on Avian Flu, which by the way went well, I was researching a quote from Mark Twain, something about "my life has been full of disasters, most of which never happened." Came across, via Google, a speech by Michael Crichton, the doctor (yes, harvard med I believe) who produces ER and wrote Jurassic Park. He goes through several media panics (global cooling, yes, you younger folks, in the 1970's we thought the earth was about to enter a new ice age!), The Population Bomb that never exploded, Y2K, etc. Quick, guess how many people died at Chernobyl? Would you believe 10,000? It was actually 56. He has a marvelous novel, State of Fear, which covers some similar ground. Typical Crichton: sort of flat characters, unlikely but fast-paced plot, but excellent research and even a bunch of footnotes. Well worth the read.
Executive summary: The press, governments, and trial lawyers all benefit from keeping us in a state of fear. We buy books, obey orders, and sue people if we are fearful. Filter the news with that in mind.
Another added note: he thinks that medical research, where we don't let the drug companies do their own verification studies, has a lot to teach to environmental science. Maybe we docs actually do something right. For a bunch of his speeches, look here.
Executive summary: The press, governments, and trial lawyers all benefit from keeping us in a state of fear. We buy books, obey orders, and sue people if we are fearful. Filter the news with that in mind.
Another added note: he thinks that medical research, where we don't let the drug companies do their own verification studies, has a lot to teach to environmental science. Maybe we docs actually do something right. For a bunch of his speeches, look here.
