Dr Doug Edmeades - ANZAC Thoughts

Dr Doug Edmeades is an independent soil scientist and MD of agKnowledge Ltd.

I have sat in that place - the place where he penned that immortal poem about those poppies in Flanders Fields. It was a dressing station outside Ypres where he attended to the wounded. He was John McCrae a Canadian medic. The year 1915.

We all know, because it was taught so religiously in primary school, the first few lines: "In Flanders Fields where poppies grow between the crosses row on row......". What struck me as I sat outside the now restored dressing station, in that almost sacred place; and it emerges fresh from my subconscious every Anzac Day, is the last verse.

"Take up our quarrel with the foe/to you from falling hands we throw the torch/be yours to hold it high/If ye break faith with us who die/ we shall not sleep...."

If John McCrae and all those soldiers for whom he spoke, could speak to us today what meanings would they want us to apply: what "quarrel", what "torch", what "faith?" What is worth fighting for today?

Of course freedom and democracy are paramount but we, the baby boomers, are blessed; we have never experienced a time when these basic rights were threatened, at least not in our precious corner of the world. I do acknowledge that for the current flood of refugees staggering into Europe, the 'quarrel' and the 'foe' are well defined.

Perhaps for us the issue reduces to defining the current threats to a 20th century democracy.

I could list a bunch of issues: feeding 9 billion mouths, land-use intensification, industrial farming, genetic modification, animal rights and climate change. The press reminds us daily of these problems and no doubt these are important issues but, in my analysis, they are technical and political issues which will be solved given time, science investment and political will. One day I suspect we will reflect on them, with that grinning pride of a 4 year old who has just learned to ride a bike - gosh, I have just conquered a major.

For me the major threat that we must confront are not these, what I will call externalities. The challenge lies deep, often hidden within us - our philosophical settings - the mental scaffolding upon which we decide what is best, not just for ourselves but for our communities and society.

We have emerged from the age of enlightenment, the age of reason, when so much progress was made, only to find ourselves now plunging headlong and thoughtlessly into a world labeled by others as the world of "airheads" a world of "mumbo jumbo". A place where the sound-bites and the clichés are as profound as it gets and the Sunday paper gets more and more mindless as it gets fatter and fatter.

How did it happen that the age of reason morphed into the age of non-reason: where PC ism demands that all opinions be given equal weight and respect, irrespective of where the evidence lies. Where pseudo-science is allowed and tolerated at the table of science. Where criticism, that vital activity by which science progresses, is no longer allowed. Where science is trapped in a political and commercial time warp that gags its solemn purpose in any enlightened society - academic freedom. Where politicians regard the voice of science as simply another lobby group looking for money. Where the purpose of science is no longer about the pursuit of truth and understanding. Its role now is to support the political or environmental narrative of the extremists.

Science, the foundation stone of the enlightenment, the source of so much progress since the 1700s, is today under threat. And science is politically helpless. Yes, we need lawyers and accountants to administer the laws of the land. We need doctors for health, teachers for education and engineers to keep us safe. These are givens in a modern society. But science.......? Science is the only truly voluntary profession. The law does not prescribe that governments, societies and farmers must use science. Ask Sir Peter Gluckman how hard it has been to get science involved on policy decisions.

This reality, and our modern philosophical settings, puts science in a very vulnerable position. The foe of unreason must be fought to restore science to its noble cause. That is my quarrel. It is my torch. It is one of the reasons that keeps me alive.

Ok boys.....? Over the top tomorrow? Watch your back, mind. The enemy this time is within.

Dr Doug Edmeades, MscHons, ONZM (Services to Agriculture), is an independent soil scientist and MD of agKnowledge Ltd. All of Doug's columns can be found here, and he welcomes feedback to
Doug Edmeades