Rumor Mongers

"Neutral" technocrats sign on to anti-technology smear campaigns.

Virginia Postrel from the February 1999 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

Even as it released the study showing that the campaign is hooey, the CPSC asked toy makers and retailers to take the toys off the market. The agency suggested that parents of infants throw the toys away. It asked for further study. The message was clear: Scientists say the toys are safe, but we disagree--why take a chance? The CPSC joined the defamation campaign.

As a result, no manufacturer or retailer can afford to keep the toys on the market. Once a government agency has suggested that a product is dangerous, the litigation risk is simply too high to keep selling it. In fact, every child who comes down with kidney or liver disease and who has ever chewed a phthalate-containing rattle--a category that includes most kids--now has an innuendo-based case to bring against the rattle maker. There are few plaintiffs more sympathetic than sick children.

Consider what happened with breast implants. There was no serious evidence against them when FDA Commissioner David Kessler declared a moratorium, pending further studies. But his action suggested danger, and the implants were doomed. As Joseph Nocera wrote in Fortune: "In a less litigious society, a government official would be able to say out loud that a medical device needed further study, and that's what would happen: There would be further study. Instead, Kessler's call for an implant moratorium became the spark that finally lit the blaze. Within weeks, 100 lawsuits had become 1,000 lawsuits. The stampede had begun."

The administrative state promised us government by neutral experts, wise men who would consider the facts and issue rational regulations based on science, efficiency, safety, and the public good. All we had to do was surrender political accountability--independent agencies report neither to Congress nor to the president--and individual liberty.

It was always a bad bargain: Technocracy is by nature hostile to diversity and freedom. Its goal is control--a uniform future shaped by experts. It recognizes only one best way. So it overrides the judgments and desires of individuals, curbing choice, experimentation, and learning in the name of "scientific" wisdom.

Now, however, our technocrats aren't keeping their side of the bargain. They're destroying not only choice but progress, attacking not only liberty but truth. They have joined forces with those who seek to quash technology, innovation, and "unnatural" inventions--to create a static society by defamation and decree. By attacking the innocent and emboldening the malevolent, spreading rumors and defying their own experts, they have betrayed the public trust.