The clash of the two cultures and the challenge of collaboration
But the deepest point of all — buried a little too deep, perhaps — is a practical problem that remains as pressing today as it was in 1959: how to reconcile technical expertise with the demands of policy and politics. In short — have we really had enough of experts?
The historian Lisa Jardine highlights this sentence in Snow’s argument: “It is the traditional culture, to an extent remarkably little diminished by the emergence of the scientific one, which manages the western world.” We didn’t decide we’d had enough of experts in 2016; we made that decision long ago.
Fou d'bois foud' Wood – 33814.0 Exploration Game – Magnetic CalendarATLAS R-3 Locomotive 4211-Hudson -DelawareHornby R380 LMS 4-6-0 Lord Rathmore RN 5533 with crew crimson hardly used
As Snow pointed out in a series of lectures he gave at Harvard in 1960, published as Science and Government, grave mistakes can result not only from a vacuum of technical knowledge in politics, but from a monopoly — the single expert, unchallenged. He cited the allied bombing of dense urban areas in Germany during the war, which not only took a terrible toll on civilians, but failed in military terms by sparing industrial targets. The source of the problem was a flawed statistical study by Winston Churchill’s scientific adviser Frederick Lindemann that no one had both the technical skill and the political clout to challenge. It is not enough to give political influence to a physicist or an economist. The corridors of power must ring with scientifically informed debate.
Lionel Herbert Hoover Boxcar MADE IN USA PRESIDENTIAL BOXCAR1000 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle GHIBLI MY NEIGHBOR TOTgold Wonderful Magic_ruSpedix GS40 40A 4in1 2-6s BlHeli32 Dshot1200 ESC
None of this is to assert the superiority of a technical education over a classical, literary or vocational one, although Snow sometimes seemed to yield to that temptation. We don’t need a parliament full of chemists any more than we need one full of classicists. We need a mix. Like scientific research, good policymaking is now a team effort. It requires different perspectives and a range of specialist expertise. We all must learn to work with people who see the world very differently. That wasn’t easy to do in 1959. It is no easier today.
Volantex Claymore Mini Racing Self Righting Speed BoatFlytec 18203 14110746mm AR Battle RC Tank 480P WIFI FPV Image Transmission
Written for and first published in the Kyosho radio control electric touring car First Minute Initial D Toyota Sprinter on 3 May 2019.
My book “Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy” (UK) / “Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy” (US) is out now in paperback – feel free to order online or through your local bookshop.
