Why is Pseudoscience Dangerous?

July 15, 2005 D. H. McKee

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The end of the 20th century was marked by the flowering of astrology, mysticism, occultism, etc. in many countries of the world. However the USSR (in the last years of its existence) and Russia occupy a special place in this sense. The state of ruin, the crushing of old ideals, and the lack of new ones has led to exhausted, desperate people starting to hope only for a miracle…
No little credit for this belongs to the mass media which has unfortunately not been able to make reasonable profit from one of the great achievements of the post-Soviet period, freedom of speech. The license and irresponsibility of the majority of the mass media has led to anti-scientific nonsense literally filling the pages of newspapers, magazines, radio and television. In recent years a new phenomenon has arisen which did not exist before. Pseudoscience has turned into a powerful, well-organized force. In the last 10 years 120 academies have arisen in Russian, many of which simply discredit this word. Several of them “rubber stamp” professionally unfit doctors of sciences in various scientific disciplines, of course not unselfishly, and at the same time in anti-scientific [disciplines]: astrologers, UFOlogists, and the rest of the public received diplomas. Things are no better in the West. For example, the New York Academy in the US has been turned into a purely commercial enterprise. For a little over $100 it eagerly accepts both scientists and pseudoscientists alike into its ranks.
In Russia even research institutes of an anti-scientific bent have appeared. Here’s just two examples: The International Institute of Space Anthropoecology and the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics. The first of these managed even to get government accreditation with the aid of the Ministry of Science. And the second received financial aid from this same ministry for several years and from the Ministry of Defense for the well-known fraud with torsion fields. I want to note that Russia is no exception. For example, in the US a Maharishi University has arisen whose activity bears little resemblance to intellectual activity.
Why is Pseudoscience Dangerous?

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As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

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