Healthy Skepticism on Cancer
Here are some stats from a new book called “What Canadians Think about Almost Everything”
“The results of this poll are not surprising since we are constantly being bombarded by the media with stories of scientific breakthroughs which have just occurred or are just about to occur. These stories usually predict that massive benefits for humankind will flow from these impending discoveries. This constantly replayed mantra serves to reinforce the essential underlying theme of modernity, which is the notion of constant progress through science and technology.
It is not surprising, therefore, that most people believe that technology will 'cure cancer' soon.
It is also not surprising that people can’t cope with the following facts.
1/. Over-all technology creates much more cancer than it stops. Modern humans are living in a thick soup of chemical carcinogenic toxins created by the same system which claims to be working on 'curing cancer.' The dramatic rise in the incidence of cancers in the developed world over the last 60 years FOLLOWS the dramatic rise in technology.
2/. Digital technology and DNA technology have been very successful in recent years and this tends to obscure the fact that there has actually been very little change in the rest of technology over the last 25 years. (Even with digital and DNA technology, the basic science was worked out well before the last 25 years.) The real wonder is that that millions of scientists/researchers working with huge budgets all over the world have, after 25 years, been able to come up with so little.
The main drugs used to treat cancer have not changed much since I worked in oncology as an intern in 1980. Yes, there appear to be new drugs based on understanding the human genome in the pipeline, but these will be incredibly expensive and targeted to very specific situations as is the nature of DNA based technology. Furthermore, the same technology which enables these medications to be produced, also enables genetic engineering of a range of organisms in which the inherent dangers of increasing the rates of cancer creation even further are obvious. It is therefore probable that in the long-run, DNA based technologies will increase the incidence of cancer mortality not reduce it.
3/. Surely it makes more sense to reduce the risk of developing cancer, which can be done very cheaply ( in fact your society can save money in the process) rather than spending massive amounts of money and effort on pointlessly trying to find that forever elusive cure? What we need is less technology, not more. Over 20,000 different chemicals are commonly used by industry and we are exposed to these. Most of them have not been properly studied long-term. (You force feed the chemical to some rats and if they don’t all die within 24 hours you declare the chemical safe .) We need less carcinogenic chemicals in our food, clothing, agriculture, houses, gardens, workplaces, schools and transport systems.
5/. Technology makes us lazy and fat so that even if the carcinogens don’t get us, coronary artery disease and diabetes will. It makes me sad to see China industrializing according to the Western pattern and making the same errors. Out go the bicycles and in come the cars. Out goes fitness and in comes unfitness, respiratory disease from pollution, cancer heart disease and diabetes! Disaster! That's progress. ”
Indeed. Thank you, Doctor.
- 7 out of 10 Canadians are confident that within their life-time scientists will find a cure for cancer.
- 68% think that , within the next ten years, cancer will become something you live with, rather than something you die from.
- 9 in 10 Canadians would like to know more about latest advances in cancer research.
“The results of this poll are not surprising since we are constantly being bombarded by the media with stories of scientific breakthroughs which have just occurred or are just about to occur. These stories usually predict that massive benefits for humankind will flow from these impending discoveries. This constantly replayed mantra serves to reinforce the essential underlying theme of modernity, which is the notion of constant progress through science and technology.
It is not surprising, therefore, that most people believe that technology will 'cure cancer' soon.
It is also not surprising that people can’t cope with the following facts.
1/. Over-all technology creates much more cancer than it stops. Modern humans are living in a thick soup of chemical carcinogenic toxins created by the same system which claims to be working on 'curing cancer.' The dramatic rise in the incidence of cancers in the developed world over the last 60 years FOLLOWS the dramatic rise in technology.
2/. Digital technology and DNA technology have been very successful in recent years and this tends to obscure the fact that there has actually been very little change in the rest of technology over the last 25 years. (Even with digital and DNA technology, the basic science was worked out well before the last 25 years.) The real wonder is that that millions of scientists/researchers working with huge budgets all over the world have, after 25 years, been able to come up with so little.
The main drugs used to treat cancer have not changed much since I worked in oncology as an intern in 1980. Yes, there appear to be new drugs based on understanding the human genome in the pipeline, but these will be incredibly expensive and targeted to very specific situations as is the nature of DNA based technology. Furthermore, the same technology which enables these medications to be produced, also enables genetic engineering of a range of organisms in which the inherent dangers of increasing the rates of cancer creation even further are obvious. It is therefore probable that in the long-run, DNA based technologies will increase the incidence of cancer mortality not reduce it.
3/. Surely it makes more sense to reduce the risk of developing cancer, which can be done very cheaply ( in fact your society can save money in the process) rather than spending massive amounts of money and effort on pointlessly trying to find that forever elusive cure? What we need is less technology, not more. Over 20,000 different chemicals are commonly used by industry and we are exposed to these. Most of them have not been properly studied long-term. (You force feed the chemical to some rats and if they don’t all die within 24 hours you declare the chemical safe .) We need less carcinogenic chemicals in our food, clothing, agriculture, houses, gardens, workplaces, schools and transport systems.
5/. Technology makes us lazy and fat so that even if the carcinogens don’t get us, coronary artery disease and diabetes will. It makes me sad to see China industrializing according to the Western pattern and making the same errors. Out go the bicycles and in come the cars. Out goes fitness and in comes unfitness, respiratory disease from pollution, cancer heart disease and diabetes! Disaster! That's progress. ”
Indeed. Thank you, Doctor.
posted by Donna at 8:52 p.m.
1 Comments:
Great post!
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