Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 23:28:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: MT: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: AN OBSCURANTIST MOVEMENT?



Well, the altternative medicine movement is and always has been full of
cranks, At the same time, there is a lot of verifible effectiveness on
folk remedies based on mere empiricism, not all of which we cab explain.
And then there's acupuncture, no folk remedy, no explanation of why it
works, but it's effective anesthesia. The Chinese theory underlying it is
demonstrably false,a nd western medicine can't say why it should be
effective. I'm no enement of science and rationality, as Ralph know. But
facts are facts.

--jks

On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Ralph Dumain wrote:

> I'm not really into this subject, but for the past couple of years, I have
> made a habit of leaving the radio on when one of these programs comes on the
> air while I am working on my computer.  The program I am mostly exposed to
> is a more or less daily show by one Gary Null out of New York, broadcast
> over the entire Pacifica network.  I have always been suspicious of this
> character, even though I sometimes find this program informative and
> potentially useful.  His critiques of institutional western medicine not
> infrequently spill over into political critiques, of the CIA, multinational
> corporations, etc., but the animus even here is mostly against western
> science and rationality.  Also, the approach to alternatives is completely
> indiscriminate: any spiritual, religious, mystical, esoteric, or
> pseudo-scientific notion is seriously entertained, on the proviso that it is
> not scientific, and this is mixed in with more down-to-earth information
> regarding diet, nutrition, and other rationally ascertainable factors in
> disease and health.
> 
> Today my annoyance at this program came to a head, as Null and some
> character he interviewed on the phone, finally got down to an explicit
> philosophical discourse on the nature of science.  The philosophical
> ineptitude, childishness, and obscurantism of this conversation was just
> about the last straw for me.  This especially because these fellows
> characterized the philosophical divide by the terms "empiricism", which
> characterizes traditional healing systems where curing the patient, not
> rational explanation, prevails; and "rationalism", which characterizes the
> medical establishment and science in general, which is a priori incapable of
> recognizing the mind and spirit.  This confusion was just too much to
> stomach, so finally I've decided to speak up now, even though doing so has
> been in the back of my mind for months.
> 
> The other fellow was more conciliatory, hoping to build a bridge between the
> "empiricists" and the "rationalists".  Null said he tried to do that for
> years, without success, so he took a much more strident attitude.
> 
> Most curious about all this is the mental and ideological confusion that
> predominates in opposing a bureaucratic capitalist medical establishment,
> sometimes with solid scientific empirical concerns, and sometimes with an a
> priori rejection of established western medicine and total credulity with
> respect to the superstitious drivel of other cultures and alternative
> crackpots from this one.  
> 
> All this is justified in the name of open-mindedness and pure empiricism.
> It reminds of Engels' perspicacious comment over a century ago that naive
> radical empiricism leads directly to the domain of the table-tippers.
> 
> I wonder if anybody out there has experience of Gary Null and other public
> advocates of "alternative medicine", and particularly an analysis of what's
> going on behind the scenes--the ideological and class basis of this
> movement, its relation to political economy, accountability and
> profiteering, etc.