Metaphors of Fear
“Resistance to science is born of fear. Fear, in turn, is bred by ignorance. And it is ignorance that is our deepest malady.” (Lunsford 241) This quote from “Enemies of Promise”, by Michael Bishop, clearly illustrates why people are so opposed to scientific progress. The fear of the unknown causes chaos, and begins people on a downward spiral of misinformed conclusions opposing scientific discovery until no logical thought remains. Leaving nothing but pure fear to cause people to blurt out phrases such as, “those people are bringing DNA into my neighborhood.” People’s fears are unfortunately a very profitable target. Throughout history Hollywood film makers have capitalized on fear of humanity to make a very comfortable living. Doomsayers and pessimistic authors publish book after book, and essay after essay, feeding people’s paranoia that the end of the world is approaching, and if there is any chance for survival, we most stop those scientists. The arguments from these authors lack concrete details and logical thought processes. Instead arguments are illustrated through weak metaphors and unqualified conclusions. In Biotech Century: Playing Ecological Roulette with Mother Nature’s Designs, Jeremy Rifkin gives us an example of how a doomsayer strikes fear in the hearts of people around the world without using a single bit of concrete evidence or a complete logical thought. If studied closely the comparisons and arguments Rifkin creates, further illustrate that many arguments against scientific discovery are “born of fear.”
The first metaphor in Rifkin’s article suggests that genetic alterations are tantamount to a, “Second Genesis.” (Lunsford 245) First, the Genesis was the beginning or ori...
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...er and disease? Perhaps this is gods way of making right all the mistakes made throughout the course of evolution? Somewhere in evolution humans developed a gene that made them more violent. If we can find that gene, understand it, and find a way to remove it from human existence, then we will be able to rid the world of violent people. The possibilities good and bad are endless. However, one thing is certain, once genetic engineering is a commonplace in every day life, man-kind will experience a change in society which will make the technological revolution look like an elementary school science project.
Works Cited
1. Lunsford, Andrea A. and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Presence of Others. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
2. Platt, Charles. “Evolution Revolution” (Jan 1997) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.01/ffgenome_pr.html (Dec 2002)
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
Both men give hope that tomorrow will be better by their actions. Their stories provide this hope for the future for not only those present at the time, but for all of those who hear their story. They are superheroes, superheroes of hope.
Monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters are the physical embodiment due to a wide variety of reasons. The most important being: Monsters’ apparent invulnerability/incredible strength, represent the bad part of society, most often look ugly, represent evil/nightmares itself, are intelligent, and some deviate from the norms are the reasons why monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters’ incredible characteristics are what strike fear into the hearts of others. In many myths, monsters are a weakness to societies. For instance, the heroes of Rome fight these monsters in order to overcome them which is the symbolic overcoming of weakness by the community. The fear monsters represent is primarily human fear as monsters are generally on good terms with animals and human fear is far deeper than animal fear.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 549-51. Print.
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
William E. Cain, Alice McDermott, Lance Newman, and Hilary E. Wyss. New York: New York, 2013. 48-53. Print.
In “A Rose for Emily”, Charles Faulkner used a series of flashbacks and foreshadowing to tell Miss Emily’s story. Miss Emily is an interesting character, to say the least. In such a short story of her life, as told from the prospective of a townsperson, who had been nearly eighty as Miss Emily had been, in order to tell the story from their own perspective. Faulkner set up the story in Mississippi, in a world he knew of in his own lifetime. Inspired by a southern outlook that had been touched by the Civil War memory, the touch of what we would now look at as racism, gives the southern aroma of the period. It sets up Miss Emily’s southern belle status and social standing she had been born into, loner or not.
Criminological theories interpret the competing paradigms of Human Nature, Social Order, Definition of Crime, Extent and Distribution of Crime, Causes of Crime, and Policy, differently. Even though these theories have added to societies understanding of criminal behaviour, all have been unable to explain why punishment or treatment of offenders is unable to prevent deviancy, and thus are ineffective methods of control. The new penology is a contemporary response that favours the management of criminals by predicting future harm on society. However, all criminological theories are linked as they are a product of the historical time and place, and because of their contextual history, they will continue to reappear depending on the current state of the world, and may even be reinvented.
In The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky said, “…fear is simply the consequence of every lie.” Dostoevsky is stating how people are afraid of what will happen when their lie(s) is/are put out in the open. Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined. This line suggests that people are afraid of the truth, which inevitably is the consequence of every lie. Even though this quote was written by a 19th century author it can still relate to texts that were made centuries prior. Both Sophocles and Shakespeare’s plays support Dostoevky because both plays deal with the act of lying and its consequences as a major motif.
Kurtz, Elizabeth Carney. "Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'". Explicator. Heldref Publications. 44.2 (1986): 40. Academic Search Complete. Blinn College, Bryan, Lib. 18 Oct. 2007
Janet E. Gardner , Beverly Lawn , Jack Ridl , Peter Schakel. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2013. 250-276. Print.
In the summer of 1995, the periodical Wilson Quarterly published "Enemies of Promise," an essay by J. Michael Bishop, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of microbiology from the University of California, San Francisco. The essay addressed the renewed criticism the scientific community has received in recent years by an ignorant and unduly critical public. The overall effect this single work has had on the world may be nominal, but the points Professor Bishop raises are significant, and provide ammunition against the ignorants who maintain this "intellectual war," centuries after it was sparked.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Shorter 5th ed. Ed. R.V.Cassill. New York: W.W. Norton & Comp., 1995.
The majority of scientific work in genetics and genomic sequencing has been done in the last 155 years. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species where he proposed evolution by natural selection. Evolution is the change of inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.Yet, the principals of genetics required to explain how characters are ...
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