Farrar: politics - carpe diem

 

 

Farrar, June 19, 2019: (P)eople .. are going to see unbelievable changes in society in the next 20 to 30 years in ways that .. will be very disruptive.

Farrar the futurist. He knows what’s coming:

           -     disruption    - 

It’s Jeremy’s job to shape it. For all of us. 

Personally, i’ve had about enough of your Disruption. Right when disruption became a scientific buzz-word - we had the ultimate Disruption. 

Farrar: 27:35: At this moment, when the scientific advances are perhaps the most exciting in the last few decades, we are facing a society and a political structure which is questioning the very advances that are being made.

The dreaded questioning. If you really want to infuriate a world-leading scientist, ask them a question…

(Francis, King Arthur of Genomics, was onto this since way back as well:

Technology: (On Feb 14, 2001) Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, made a disturbing claim about the future. “Major anti-technology movements will be active in the U.S. and elsewhere by 2030," he predicted.)

Farrar: As a scientific community, I think we have been complacent that people would accept scientific advances (without question) and they would just thank us for it. 

(A)s a community, we’ve got to engage much better than we have done in the past in order to bring society with us. .. We have to see this as one of our great challenges.

The scientists being us. Us being society.  This is a theme of Farrar’s - repeated in other rousing speeches. He is always thinking outside the pure science. Thinks about the propaganda game - as Francis did - the great challenges of annoying democratic structures - societies - how to overcome them - bring them with us. Us being the Deciders.  (you being a Decidees).

Farrar: That combination of science, innovation and society is the triangle that Wellcome seeks to put together.

Farrar was keenly aware a GoF-exit would have been disastrous for all that. The cherished vision of One Health genomic surveillance up in smoke. 

That's motivation for a cover-up right there.

Farrar: (7:13) Our lawyer at Wellcome - promise I should never say anything about US politics so anything that may seem as if it may indicate any political view, please, it does not (smirks) - necessarily. (audience laughter) 

But as you go through your own political cycles (as opposed to us, who, like the CCP, just keep on ruling - Fauci’s been director of NIAID since 1984!) - and I can tell you we’re going through an even worse one in the UK - I’ll come back to that - just don’t forget - the leadership role that you play. .. So thank you for your leadership and please: do never never step down from it.

Ok, so much for taking the politics out. That’s a straightforward call-to-political-arms from an unelected power cohorter. As co-author with Gao and Fauci on a powerful/political WHO/World Bank report, titled The World at Risk, you urge political action.  

The message is: we have enormous power - use it.

Farrar: 8:50: If not now then when? If not now - if we don’t stand up for the values that we all hold dear (One-Everything) - at this time of real change politically around the world, then - and if not us - who (WHO?) will do it?

Jeremy, it’s not your job to rule the world - whatever you may have convinced yourself. You’re not the messiah - you’re a very naughty boy. No one voted for you for a start. If you want to play global politics, become a politician. But you won’t do that will you? - coz you might have to face being questioned - getting cycled out.  One-ism doesn't do cycle-out.

 

To finish the lecture Farrar quotes Shakespeare:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

is bound in shallows and in miseries

On such a full sea are we now afloat

And we must take the current when it serves

or lose our ventures

The signalling is loud and clear: As an empowered Science Community (thanks to Anthrax and SARS-1), we're on a full sea. Sail (for war) now. If not now, we'll lose our global ventures.

Interestingly Farrar omits the first line, which is:

We at the height are ready to decline

It's spoken by Brutus in Julius Caesar - which explores how warning signs can be mistaken for opportunity by ambitious people at the height.

To Jeremy's credit - he did note: 

...it didn't end well for the speaker.

 

by dulan drift, Thursday, August 12, 2021, 10:49