1970 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 124

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FROM TERRITORIAL IMAGE TO CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Provided we do not destroy each other in our technical world, and provided we do not become members of the engineering world of „1984", a final question remains to be answered on our way to becoming compassionate: What can be learned from social pollution? In the first place, it must be studied as an inevitable, rather than an incidental development or a phenomenon repeating itself historically which will take care of itself once circumstances and times change. For instance, campus unrest is probably not due to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, neither is it a product of the ever recurring generation gap. Granted, all of these factors play a role; but it has become clear that the young legitimately revolt for reasons (overpopulation, dehumanization, the threat of World War III) which are absolutely insoluble vsdthin the concepts passed on by the previous generations. In the words of René Dubos, „For the first time in the history of mankind, the biological and social experience of the father is almost useless to his son." (Man, Medicine, and Environment, p. 88). In the second place, we may learn to be compassionate in order to combat social pollution, with the knowledge that deliberate actions can help change our image of man in the desired direction. We must set an example in showing willingness to accept a diversity of attitudes and opinions, because, even if they in themselves do not lead to the desired new images, they can certainly help eliminate those that are obsolete. For instance, images in the minds of Roman Catholics are changing with the emergence of alternate forms of worship, the questioning of the relevance of celibacy, and the increasing demand for birth control. These developments have produced signs of hardening of conservative attitudes in the church hierarchy - temporary social pollution - but these signs should not be attacked in themselves. We should learn to see them in their perspective (a natural consequence of dominance hierarchy) and to tolerate them (lest they get undue attention and increase the traditional faith) while at the same time continuing to press for reform. Everyday politics deals with such complexities of issues and reactions and illustrates often that no progress is made by hostile and outspoken intolerance of opinions of others. Unjustified and harmful intolerance of the opinions of others seems especially prevalent among scientists dealing with human behavior and culture. They ought to be the very last to block divergent

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