The Danger of the Scientific-Technological Elite

Michael Schellenberger Crushes it Before Congress

AT the outset of his opening remarks, sitting next to Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger reached back to the second of Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings. We all remember the first - the Military/Industrial Complex. Here is his second warning:

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocation, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet in holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

— President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

Watch. The hysterics of the Democrat ranking member is entertaining enough on its own. Then Schellenberger and Taibbi just crush it.

I’ll just leave their epic testimony to stand on its own other than to say this: The authority to govern does not arise from the lab nor from the peer reviewed journal article. It is not conferred upon folks when they get hooded with their Ph.D. The authority to govern arises from the consent of the governed. That comes from the ballot box, not the faculty lounge or think tank.