The post-truth, the cursed heir of the postmodern

For so many years, maybe even centuries, Portugal didn't so have so much hope capital. That is to say, for such a long time it didn't have a generation with such qualified, trained and educated people. What would have been of the Portuguese Empire if, at the time, there was the vision or the possibility of educating as many people as we do today? It is also known that the fall of the empire was also due to the exclusion of educated people, Q.E.D or almost.

However, the opportunity can be lost and the sprout can collapse if it isn't properly taken care of.

In the knowledge society, people are the greatest capital, without neglecting the need for other resources. In the knowledge society, knowledge is what matters the most. However, if the very source of the knowledge is undermined, everything loses its value.

Knowledge isn't a data bank - it involves process and structure. Science is for knowledge what democracy is for government, as in the famous words of Churchill - it is the worst way to approach the universe, except for all the others.

This way, it is important to introduce in the early school, the respect and even the worship for the scientific method, the need of impartiality, the authenticity check of the sources, the experimentation, the confirmation, the comprehension of the limits. Science is Humanity's most glorious construction, since it is self aware - and it is the most democratic, since it's accessible to everyone and its principles can't be tempered with.

They can't be... or they shouldn't. But there is no lack of trying. In reaction to a rationalism and a positivism that incorporate the greatest advancements in the art of the critical thinking and in the technological and moral progress of humanity, heralds of 'new' systems, new exceptions to discard have shown up, who took advantage of a careful dosage of opportunism, prominence and ignorance. The negative postmodern effect was translated into an extreme aberration designated by 'relativism disguised as scientific', in a reactionary expression marketing itself as progressive – and that had and still has its preachers as well as missionaries in Portugal.

The consequence is the proliferation of beliefs, myths and post-truths that are harmful not only to the knowledge but also to the well-being of the citizens. A prime example of this is the movement that sought the rejection of vaccines; another one reflects itself on the rejection of scientific knowledge on causes and development of climate changes; another one is still growing now with the idea of 'natural childbirths at home', as there were already some others like the natural miraculous seeds or even the bracelets that could capture the natural energies – putting the word 'natural' in any kind of nonsense makes it marketable in this post-truth world. The list is big, just as the cults are. Each with its ministers, its heralds, its evangelisers – and, let's not be naive on this, its terrorists and its interests.

People are not only made up by reason: so, naturally, defending science with logical argumentation is simply not enough. It's necessary to feel science like it's something valuable we need to protect, that it is our heritage, that we like it, that we cherish it, that it belongs to our family and values, that it is ours and that we won't allow anyone to come and steal it from us.

Happy 2019, with science and conscience.