On the radio the other day a developmental psychologist was interviewed about her work. In it she said that she did not approve of parents allowing children under 2 years old to watch tv. One reason she gave was that tv images did not encourage eye movement and were therefore damaging a child’s development. The remedy for this, she said, was science i.e. since it is unlikely that parents will stop letting their babies watch tv, then the programmes they watch should be designed by science. An example of the sort of programme she approved of was 3 cubes moving around a screen. We were also told that this psychologist works for a company (or perhaps she owns it, I can’t remember) which is, in fact, designing the very “scientifically approved” DVDs for babies that she recommends. So, if that woman has her way, out go the colourful Titifers singing their lovely song, and in come 3 stultifyingly boring cubes. I know which I’d rather watch.
This interview highlighted two very disturbing issues regarding the increasing control science has over people’s lives.
First, this psychologist is WAY out of her depth. The human mind is simply far too complex to be tampered with in this manner – to do so would be lethal. This scientist is invading the garden of a child’s mind. She has decided that one little sapling is to be given sole attention, so she will withdraw all water and nutrients from the rest of the garden and make a bonsai of the sapling, twisting it with wires into a “scientifically approved” shape, as well as severely stunting its growth.
Secondly, the psychologist’s interference is a blatant example of the Empire of Science trying to move in on the Arts and take it over. If science is allowed to do to entertainment what it has done to food i.e. remove all the flavour, turn eating into a calculation (thus removing all the things that people like about food) - then you let it do so at your peril. If you let science take over entertainment, not only will it become banal and tasteless, but you will no more get to watch what you want than you are allowed to eat what you want. And what you will be allowed to watch will be carefully controlled by “nutritionists”. High on the scientifically prescribed diet will, of course, be very high doses of science, whereas action films, soap operas, or anything that people actually like, will be strictly rationed. So, for example, while you might be allowed to watch a certain number of “units” of football per week, once science gets its dirty little hands on sport, it will turn everything into e.g. the “science” of football, the “science” of golf, and so full of calculations of velocity, force or equations for parabolic curves that you’d hardly see anything of the actual sport.
The truth is that scientists are getting more arrogant by the day. They are seriously above themselves. It was bad enough when they started tampering with nuclear weapons, worse when they got into genetics, and now that they’re getting their fingers into people’s minds, particularly children’s minds, someone REALLY needs to put a stop to them.