The Vision of the Anointed -> Perverts Science
People who talk about the corrupting influence of money seem to automatically assume that it is only private money that is corrupting. But, when governments have billions of dollars invested in the global warming crusade, massive programs underway and whole political careers at risk if that crusade gets undermined, do not expect the disinterested search for truth.
Among the intelligentsia, there have always been many who are ready to jump on virtually any bandwagon that will take them to the promised land, where the wise and noble few-- like themselves-- can take the rest of us poor dummies in hand and tell us how we had better change the way we live our lives.
No doubt some climate scientists honestly believe that global warming poses a threat. But other climate scientists honestly believe the opposite. That is why the raw data have had to be destroyed before the latter get their hands on it.
This is tragically the case as regards many other issues, besides global warming, where data are made available only to the true believers and kept out of the hands of those who think otherwise.
-Thomas Sowell
For the record - I just got a copy of Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed. Once you understand the differences between the Constrained Vision and the Unconstrained Vision (something he goes into more depth on in A Conflict of Visions)- you start to see hallmarks of either vision in all sorts of places. Climate 'Science' is a great example of how absurd and destructive a good thing can become once it enters the political process. Ultimately - 'The Vision' becomes all that matters. Empirical results, studies, and rational thinking (which are actual aspects of science), are tossed out if they don't fit with or support The Vision.
People who are passionate about science should be outraged at the way politicians and ideologues have perverted their discipline into the over-the-top turn-or-burn absurdity it has become.
