If Martians Looked Like Lobsters, Would We Boil Them?

I think that's a pertinent question. Think about it.

This summer, the History Channel has been very light on the Nazi material and all over the place in content. I started watching when, needing to watch Nazis killing people, I switched to History. But it wasn't anything like anything about Nazis, it was The Universe.

We humans are maddeningly arrogant. Because the ground temp on Venus is 860' F, no life can be there. How do we know? Can't other life develop in other systems than ours? Just because it's not our way, doesn't mean all other ways are impossible. We may not even be able to perceive it with our barely-there 5 senses. How about that?

This is where science always took me, and why I was never well-liked by my science teachers. It really drove me nuts that whole classes of what others called "Science Geeks"( because they were supposed to be so intelligent) were bobbleheads in classrooms. They didn't think, they memorized and believed unquestionably that whatever the Prof said was absolute truth. But they weren't Thinkers. Of course, the Myth lives on, because nobody ever takes the Science Geek classes but said Science Geeks. And an occasional student who gets stuck in that class because she couldn't get into anything she wanted or needed that semester. But I'm not bitter.

Science is about trends. You see it currently in the prescription drug ads. Depression was the DSM #1 diagnosis of the 90s. Everyone's been depressed at least once, since then. And drugged for it. The psych classes of the 70s made everyone Manic Depressive thru the 80s. Somewhere in the 00s, ADD and OCD surfaced, with the Autism Spectrum getting their 15 minutes. Now, all of those and their treating drugs are common knowledge. Before the massive drug therapies (I personally don't think any doc but a shrink with the MD behind should be prescribing psych drugs- but I'm old fashioned) people went to shrinks, got therapy, "worked on their problems". Now they get a drug and they're let loose to live out their nuttiness which has been drugged to a dull roar. They don't get better, they get a drug habit. And everyone thinks that's fine.

I just read an infotainment book about natural cures, not that any of it was about natural cures. It was about the salesman-author stating things we all knew without telling you anything specific. But doing it in italics stresses how important it must be. Especially when it's followed by something in bold. But hey, we're supposed to be impressed by someone actually reading a book, any book, these days. It makes you look intelligent, you know.

Well I could go on ranting but I have things to do. Go forth and multiply intelligence.