it is too kind to the modern world and science to suggest that they are about progress, and the masses are left behind and hence dread them. the level of power wielded by scientists/experts over knowledge is not justified and that is what many [in the public] dread. experts/technologists often present their position as objective and true, while at the same time displacing/denying (often diffuse/diverse) traditions of knowledge.
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Well yes, this is certainly true...to a point...
The world is, among other things, a network of complex systems, each containing its own set of behaviors and mysteries.
To provide power, water, transportation, telecommunications, machine assisted healthcare and other components of the technosphere to people, and work through basic research to improve the state of the art in these areas is not a simple matter: inevitably, the depth of complexity makes dependence upon 'experts' inevitable.
So, the level of power wielded is not entirely unjustified, being a natural result of the world systems' non trivial density.
I don't believe this always equals 'progress' but it is what it is.
When, for example, a person who has a solid grasp of electronics theory and practice looks at a television, she sees a machine that exhibits (more or less) a set of designed behaviors she can confidently describe.
To many others however (and I'm just talking about the US now), it might as well be a magic box forged by the nibelungen. If you want to understand how televisions work you'd be smart to talk to someone who knows - yes, an 'expert' - instead of someone who hasn't a clue. The person who knows (ideally) becomes the authority on the subject. That this authority, this privileged position, can be abused in various ways doesn't make the expert's knowledge any less real - or the know nothing's know nothing-ness any less clueless - it simply means that, as usual, someone's being an arrogant, exploitative ass. A story as old as humanity.
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Considering recent events in Iraq - which provide us with the spectacle of sub zero knowledge Americans being presented to millions as experts based upon their ability to relentlessly parrot acceptable lines - I'd say our biggest problem isn't a glut of improperly privileged scientists and other sorts of genuine experts but, to put it gently, a vast army of anti-reality theorists and propagandists who're crafting an alternate explanation for the way the world works.
This alternate explanation is conjured from a stew of wishful thinking, political and/or religious ideology and the need for a comfortable bedtime story.
So no, the science 'story' isn't the only, or even necessarily the best one for all circumstances. But my car does roll under its own power, planes do fly and thermonuclear devices do ruthlessly vaporize matter. If I want to understand the environment's workings - both the 'natural' and built worlds - I need to listen closely to people who're familiar with how and why these things operate as they do.
Of necessity, such people become 'privileged' to some extent.
.d.
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