Faith in Science

The day i realized that i had a faith in science was the day i stopped believing. Science is not supposed to be a religion. It's meant be observed details - that can be verified - or not.

But this shift towards a religious movement comes right from the top.  Farrar peppers his speeches with exhortations to believe - his lectures are rallying calls for those who truly, truly believe - while Lipkin talks of preaching in the wilderness.  

The other telltale sign of a religious movement is the desire to vilify a perceived enemy. In Lord of the Flies it's interesting to note that the boys didn't bother too much with inventing a God - the Devil was way more important - a powerful force for shaping/controlling the culture.

For Farrar it's the anti-globalization and/or the vaccine-hesitant movements - the great threat to his One-Everything dream.  He sees it as eroding trust in institutions ... (which is) exacerbated by social media - which in turn, acted, upon the direction of the Lancet Statement and Prox O scientists, to censor/ban such talk.

Meanwhile, Farrar and Daszak led the way in using the same platforms to vilify the conspiracy theorists and the crackpots who questioned their claim that the CCP was open and transparent.  Lipkin yearns for ways to choke them.

For a long while they were very successful. With full-backing from the world's media, our Celebrity Scientists were able to manipulate the dark-urges of humans to ostracize and demonize those who opposed them. But there's one problem with whipping up the mob - that shit can turn.