Politics and Science

 Using science to enforce political decisions will undermine both politics and science - for politics is about human relations which are by definition subjective, and science is about abstract, objective facts that by definition have to exclude what is subjective. When the two are mixed together, as is now being done, science becomes subjective, and politics becomes dehumanised.

 For I can have perfectly valid political reasons to be against the government's response to "the science", ie, I might maintain that taking a stand against totalitarianism is more important than fighting climate change or the latest variant of bird flue - and I fully admit that this is a political position and not a scientific one. Does that make it any less valid?

Put another way; I have a problem with someone who claims their political position is scientific. For politics is about values, and there is an assumption that value systems can be derived from science when in fact all that science can do is give us information, it cannot give us the value system to know how to act on that information.

When, in politics, one side claims their values are scientific, and that they are acting according to "the science", they are guilty of confusing two very different things.

If, in the end, most people succumb to totalitarianism to reduce "the spread" or "CO2 levels", then that will be a political phenomenon based on a specific value-system that happens to predominate in society - it won't be because everyone suddenly understands what science is.