Science itself is a serious subject. It has brought forth a sense enlightenment that the human mind can make things happen if used in the right direction. It's opened the mind of all people that food, technology and information are at the fingertips of most modern societies. We have become dependent on science to solve problems, find cures, bring hope, give us more convenient technologies, and in a big picture sense advance humanity to science fiction levels. At the same time, it's easy to turn our backs to science if we don't agree with facts, theories or anything that challenges our way of thinking. No other subject (besides perhaps politics) has this type of effect on the population. In a way, it's not so hard to believe.
More often than not, we find that science is abused for profit rather than the advancement of humanity. That has more to do with society, really. Somewhere out there, is a family whose loved one losing the fight against cancer. Somewhere out there, a child goes hungry because their nation lacks the scientific resources to help itself in a corrupt government system. Whereas, somewhere out there, a doctor is finishing up residency who will specialize in surgically implanting hair on bald men. Somewhere out there, a team of the brightest minds with Ph.d's in chemistry, biology and medicine, are working on a more efficient way to enlarge a man's penis. Somewhere out there, someone is revolutionizing a surgery that will make breast implants easier and affordable. Somewhere out there, someone is building a weapon capable of destroying everything which would undo the advancements thus far.
In a way, it's funny. It's become so mainstream to see ads or commercials that emphasize the male dong. 15 years ago that was almost taboo. We have slowly transitioned to thinking that global warming was a crock of shit to widely accepted fact. There is a lot more positive buzz about "going green" than there ever was without hippies having a lot to do with it. Commercials attempt to convince balding men that hair is everything. That hair is youth. That hair is the key to getting laid, getting jobs, and yes, even purchasing a sports car. Hair can do it all if you don't have it. For those who do have it, it does nothing but make them average. Ads in women's magazines boast that cheap creams and make up will erase 15 years off your face. It's important to look and feel young for as long as possible.
It blows me away to think that behind these superficial products, procedures, and promises, is a team of people who went to school for easily 6-8 years. We don't think of it often but chemists, biologists, doctors, and even physicists with masters and Ph.D's are behind it. Some of the brightest minds the country has to offer created a product through years of research (that time could have been used for something more useful) that will make my hair grow back in, a pill that will make my lips more luscious and my buttocks more firm. Things are being created that are easy, effective and useless.
Some people argue that looks are very important to some people so what harm could it do? If it's important to them, why should we care? We don't have to use the product, right? Although that may be true, it's not necessarily correct. Just because it's important to some doesn't make it useful. The 8 years it's taken some companies to develop and research a pill to make Bill's penis larger could have been spent on cancer research. It may not have led to a cure, but it would have been 8 years closer to it, logically. It has become so acceptable to embrace the superficial and the insipid in favor of individualism. Everyone deserves to look young, have large genitals, puffy lips, large breasts, firm buttocks, lose weight by pills rather than exercise (the only current, most effective, well known, method in weight loss), whiter teeth without always brushing, faster cars without using any gas, tasty foods without the hazards, sex without a catch, etc.
Suddenly, a loved one is diagnosed with a disease with no known cure. Treatments are little and not markedly effective. Its' suddenly an outrage that science has let them down. Why isn't there a cure? Why isn't there a treatment to better their odds? Why isn't there a lot of research on this rare disease? Doesn't this matter? My loved one is dying. Who is at fault? If I had to point the finger, it's at our crummy society. The industries and our society at large have put a price tag on useless sciences because it sells with fast results. It pays to make Viagra. It's good money doing less invasive breast implants. It's good money making weight loss pills without exercising. The years put into the research of these products could have been put towards curing diseases or learning more about them, tackling world hunger, relieving the stressful effects of greenhouse gases, finding alien life, advancing colonization of humans to space, learning more about our uncharted deep oceans, discovering new species, discovering new plants that could be used for useful pharmaceuticals, animal research to better understand the world around us, geology, astronomy, advancing safe technologies for travel and communications........
The problem is, the general public is not interested in all of that. As a result, it doesn't sell. There isn't as much money as we would like to think for the greater good.
In a way, we are all to blame.
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