I did not know that Prudencio Chacon had left a comment in your blog. Amazing!

I went to read it and of course, did not find any surprise as far as the methodology goes.

I cannot tell you how glad I am you picked it up that subject before I got around to write something on it. Though I would not have gotten a reply from Prudencio, after all you are the one with a scientific career in Venezuela which makes me think that some people still remember you enough to pass that note to Prudencio to hurt you from having had the courage to leave. Piensa mal y acertaras.

I agree with Anon’s response to this, but I’d like to add that there’s more to it in Venezuela, and Miguel Octavio’s line about who gets to be called scientist nowadays (“He did not say that even students and technicians and even the person that feeds the rats are now called scientists”) is the key to understanding a big chunk of what’s going on.

It’s a result of what I’d like to call the Incredi-boy sydrome. In the movie The Incredibles, the villain had no super-powers, and he was insanely jealous of those who did, so he tried to give everyone superpowers because in a world where everyone has superpowers, those who actually have superpowers wouldn’t be special anymore and wouldn’t make him feel inferior.

Chavez and his ilk and insanely jealous of anyone with actual knowledge and actual intelligence and actual talent. They created the bolivarian schools and colleges (which are laughable diploma mills) not to give people the chance of bettering themselves, but to give everyone a title regardless of whether or not they deserve to have one. If everyone is a “doctor” and a “scientist” and a “researcher”, then those who’d actually deserve those titles wouldn’t be special anymore and wouldn’t make him feel inferior.

So Chavez is trying to replace everyone with an actual title with people who’d have a hard time using a calculator, to prove that just because a Chavista couldn’t add two-digit numbers if his life depended on it, it doesn’t mean he’s inferior to the researcher with 30 years of experience and who’s read more books that Chavez can count.

Quote: “Why is Chavez so afraid of science?”

Dictators are not afraid of science in particular, but afraid of intellectuals in general, and abhor middle-class.

Why ?
- Because intellectuals will use pen and reason to oppose tear-gas and violence.
- Because intellectuals will bring arguments and truth as answers to manipulation and deceit.
- Because good-willed reasoning people will simply bring facts and arguments as answers to lies and incompetence

What is taking place in science, is parallel to what is taking place in culture .. and in any sphere that does not bend to the monopoly of ideas and loyalties being requested.

History, one key discipline, shows that this is not new.
- Why was so much emphasis during the Armenian Genocide to kill the intellectuals first ?
- Why the same thing happen in Germany in the 30′ ?
- Why the obsession of Pol-Pot to re-educate / destroy the intellectual class ?

Simply, because without conscience, without reason, without memory, without voice, a country can be easily manipulated, ‘re-educated’, to become the raw material for a doomed social experiment.

“Why is Chavez so afraid of science?”

Chavez is afraid that through science it will be proven that he can indeed talk directly from his ass.

Deanna

“Remember that the most horrible tortures and genocidal actions of the Nazi regime were headed and carried out by “scientists” and “doctors” at the service of the party.”

This is taking place daily by the so-called “trained” Cuban doctors who “experiment” on Venezuelans trying to cure their illnesses. Similar to the above article where even the people who feed the rats are called scientists, half of these doctors shouldn’t be allowed to prescribe aspirin.

People who develop paranoia frequently lose the insight to recognize that their fears are not grounded in reality.

The Medical Encyclopedia says, “Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are ‘out to get them’.”

Group paranoia can be set off easily by a powerful and threatening leader who is also suffering from paranoia like Chavez.

A must read for those connected to Venezuela: