Scientific enquiry, and most especially the systemmatic study of the
living creatures of the earth (biology/ecology/paleontology), has most
certainly fallen upon hard times in North America in recent decades -
from the heady days of the 1950s and 60s, when scientific and technical
innovations and discoveries, from genetics to the computer, the "space
race" to teflon, nuclear power to color TV shows, to the past 15 years
or so when societal forces have taken much of the wonder and exitement
out of the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, with a corresponding
decrease in emphasis on scientific topics in education.  Many learned
tomes have been written on the subject, and i have only about 10 minutes
- so i'll be mercifully brief!!

I think four main trends must bear much of the blame:

1) With the rise of "right wing" politics, there has also arisen a
virulent form of anti-intellectualism which tends to downplay scientific
pursuits in general, except where there is a chance to make a profit
from it in the short run - so subjects such as paleontology, taxonomy,
ecology and others which feed the imagination and satisfy the thirst for
knowledge of the living world we live in (which includes molluscs,
making this post "on topic".......) have been caught up in this
generalized anti-intellectual net, which i could rant about for hours,
but will spare the list this sort of non-productive nonsense - this time!!

2) The upsurge in religeous "fundamentalism" in the past 30 years in our
society, has resulted in science being viewed as a "false god", and of
course there is the uncomfotable fact that the  absolutely 100% literal
interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis involves a) belief
in a 6000 year old earth, and in extreme cases, a similar age for "the
heavens", by which is often understood the rest of the universe, and b)
a giant, worldwide flood about 1500 years later, which would necessitate
things such as the several ice ages and all the traces of human history
we have found all over the earth, all being crammed into the past 4500
years.  Science, however,  simply doesn't validate this inflexible,
cramped view of history - so it has been viewed by many as irrelevant,
and by some as outrightly heretical: many science teachers in the USA
are now actually afraid to do more than barely mention evolutionary
principles in their classrooms due to the heavy flak they often take for
doing so, by parents who wish their children to be spared exposure to
such "non-scriptural" viewpoints.   In addition, the belief that God is
going to destroy the earth completely and then re-create it as an Edenic
paridise, within the next couple of decades or so, has been a
contributing factor to the decline in the percieved relevance of science
to everyday life - if we are definitely in the very "last days" before
the Second Coming and all that that entails, then in the minds of many,
there is precious little time to devote to such things as scientific
knowledge and advance, and related avocations as conchology and
conchological organizations.

3) Attendant to the rise of "right-wing"/"conservative" political views,
is the notion that government in general should be minimized and
marginalized as much as possible - and that indivuals and corporations
are much  more efficient at handling money in general than governments,
so the later should be alloted as little funds as possible.  Practical
result: tax cuts - part of the effort to "starve the beast of
government" until its non-military portions are shrunken to the point
where they can be "drowned in a bathtub", in the words of one prominant
political insider.  Of course Education gets caught in the resulting
squeeze rather badly, and the less popular topics such as the sciences,
are shafted the most.  Massive shifting of governmental resources to
"security" and feeding the insanely rapidly growing monster of
public-sector debt, also tend to squeeze such services as education,
which is seemingly viewed as a mere inconvenience by many these days,
rather than an absolute necessity in a wide variety of areas such as
producing a well-educated electorate which might actually be inclined to
think for itself instead of letting various "authority figures" do most
of their thinking for them!!!

4) Commercialism/materialism - why bother with things which don't help
one earn more money in order to purchase more goods and services?  How
does understanding the rich tapestry of life on our planet increase
one's earning/purchasing power?....... sigh.

Fortunately, the lessons of history again and again show that societal
trends and fads are circular - everything old is eventually new again.
Already, a muted ground-swell of opposition to the above tendancies has
begun, and  will hopefully pick up some serious steam in the coming
years and decades.  Therefore, fellow "natural historians", let's a)
fight these stumbling blocks to the fuller understanding and
appreciation of the wonderful world God has created for us to enjoy and
protect/preserve, and b) be patient while the penduli of social trends
swing back in our direction!!

 From the Great Wet (very wet at the moment!!) North,
Ross Mayhew.

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