Forum Post: Scientific Process and American Policies

I advocate the advent of intellectualism as a societal norm that governs all without regard to personal biases on policies but fierce debate on results.

I have been unsettled by politics since sophomore year of college. It was when I first started watching the political debates of the 2004 Presidential election. I was asked to vote for a candidate on how he felt about raising taxes, controlling immigration, or going to war in the Mideast. Politicians were asking me to make decisions that should be in the hands of economist, historians, and in general scientist. We live in a society that bases a large majority of its policy decisions on anecdotal evidence and theories that have not been subjected to the scientific process. An untested theory is ultimately irrelevant.

The ultimate achievement in governing a people is the attainment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for each one of its citizens. This goal will forever be unattainable; it is the striving that is important in this matter. Politics in America often revolve around specific policies and theories. Raise taxes and poor people are given a better chance at life or decrease taxes and business will follow. Being pro tax or anti-tax is immaterial. All that should concern the citizens of this nation is, are we closer to life, liberty and happiness for all or are we further from it than when we started. By applying the scientific process to governing and shifting political culture from a policy driven vote to a results driven vote we will harbor an age of prosperity.

The United States of America started as an experiment in democracy. The scientific process has long been on the edge of America’s governing practice. End results in science and technology have been integrated into our society, but the process in which we reach these results has never fully and competently been applied to the governing of this nation. The past and the future of America are directly linked with the idea known as the Scientific Process.

To accomplish this shift into a results driven society each step of the process has to feasible be applied. Converting seemingly subjective matters such as liberty and justice into objective and measurable terms is incredibly difficulty, but attainable. First we have to establish were we are at today and agree on definitions that apply to every single part of what we refer to as our government.

Systematic Observation: With the advent of the internet we have been able to take individual thoughts and ideas and shape a general consensus. Each part of our government must become as transparent as possible which will give people a wealth of information on how to judge our current state of affairs. Next people need to come to a general agreement on how to define our current situation and define all politics that have historically existed in the world. The format for this would look similar to wiki where the average person is able to write, verify and scrutinize other people’s definitions leading to a broad agreement on political and social definitions.

Measurement: As a scientific community we have become very successful in our ability measure objective data in areas that was previously thought to be subjective. Identifying what the terms life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean will never be achieved as long as people have different personalities. However, general consensus and the academic study of social sciences will ensure the broadest level of people agree that they are achieving those goals.

Experimentation: Applying hypothesis on issues such as immigration will be difficult to measure results, especially without a control group. When we identify and solidify where our current policies stand on an issue, this will create the semblance of a control group. We are then able to tweak the policy one way or another and focus how those policy changes affect our nation and situation. We have been doing this “tweaking” since the start of civilization; the difference is that we have never identified objective results. Without measurable results, any policy that is put forth is only indirectly and poorly identified as a success through the thoughts of a people with different definitions of success.

Formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis The process of making changes and implementing changes is carried out daily and with the advent of systematic evaluation of where our nation and society are located we can adjust our policies as a nation one step at a time.

The future of our national will focus on electing leaders who truly know how to galvanize a populace and effectively implement tested theories. It will no longer be whether or not this politician proposes to raise or lower taxes, but how effective she is at getting results. Vote for intellectualism!

-Douglas T