During 2020, a year of enormous public health crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the United States spent $37.4 billion dollars improving and updating its nuclear weapons arsenal and launched a new ballistic missile program.
This is a gross misuse of not only tax dollars but scientific research and achievement, says science historian Cliff Conner. In fact, he calls it a tragedy.
“The tragedy is that science today isn’t what it’s supposed to be—it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do,” he says. “It’s been put to destructive purpose and hasn’t been used to accomplish all the wondrous things that we know it could have. The greatest tragedy of American science is the path not taken.”
Today, he speaks with Thursday host Allen Ruff about his new book, The Tragedy of American Science, which outlines how instead of serving the human race, science has been appropriated by corporate and military interests—which has had and will continue to have grave consequences for public health, climate change, and human flourishing.
Clifford D. Conner is a historian of science and former faculty member at the School of Professional Studies, CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of several books including A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and “Low Mechanicks” (Bold Type Books, 2005) and The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump (Haymarket, 2020).
Cover photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
