The truth is that hard facts and scientific evidence never had any special authority in shaping policy in the first place; to political leaders, a scientist’s view is just another opinion. My humanities professors came of age in the aftermath of World War II – won with radar and ended with the atomic bomb – when the scientific perspective needed no proselytizing to guarantee its authority.
真相是，硬事实和科学证据从一开始就从未获得过左右政策的特殊权威；对政治领导人来说，科学家的观点只不过提供了多一种意见。我的文科教授们是二战后成长起来的——二战的胜利来自雷达，而其结束更是依靠了原子弹——当时，科学不需要劝服就能保证权威地位。但这与其说是在决策中服从科学的理性信念，不如说是因为对科学在二战中所起到的作用的热烈反应。