Our New Zealand Lysenko
April 16, 2020
By NZB3
In Stalin’s Soviet State one man was given supremacy over science: Trofim Lysenko. He was later disgraced because it turns out he was wrong about so much.
Lysenko said what his State liked to hear. Stalin and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR fast tracked his career and made him a prominent public figure.
“After Lysenko’s monopoly on biology and agronomy had ended, it took many years for these sciences to recover in Russia.”- wiki
As Lysenko ascended the ranks of power, he attacked scientists who disagreed with him and identified them as enemies of the Soviet people. No room for dissenting views when hard-left centralism is in power. To go against the Word would be to go against the Dear Leader and the portrait of the founding Dear Leader hanging in view like some stained glass window while the State sermon was being given.
That was 100 years ago but why change a winning formula?
The blame should go to the man’s arrogance, yes, but also to an ultra-centralised political system that elevates just one voice to the cost of all dissent. Anarchists would prefer all government to be divested into local areas rather than the concentration of political power placed in the hands of one or few.
Dr. Ashley Bloomfield was described as the “ken doll”¹ of the C-19 show, his face sold on Tshirts and towels and tote bags. He was given a daily podium right next to the Prime Minister. Lysenko, too, was once the leader’s top boffin.
“It is amazing to see the public credit a technocrat with the ability to personally suppress a disease vector. If the dude’s methods were truly effective, the heroes were those hard-working people who sacrificed their jobs and likely their health and well-being to comply with the rules (even the very questionable ones).”– FB comment
It is possible, and desirable, to be able to have the conversation about how best New Zealand should have responded to the threat of COVID-19. We were deprived of that opportunity except on the back-channels of often private forums such as Anarkiwi Group.
Might we have been better to follow the advice of Australia’s Professor Brendan Murphy and do what the Ozzies did? Or our own Simon Thornley (Auckland University’s Senior Lecturer of Epidemiology) whose advice was not sought but sidelined by the Central Command? The COVID Plan B group had to compete with Central Command and its State resources and propaganda machine. Even 2 weeks into the Lockdown such opposition had the feel of something akin to hate speech or sedition! Maybe someone else should have been the Tzar’s Rasputin or Stalin’s Lysenko?
The answer is that there is no answer; Not in that context. There should be no such thing as New Zealand’s Lysenko. Not because no one guy or single team is capable enough (and, they’re not) but because nobody ever can be. Likewise, nobody can ever fill the boots of what we think a Supreme Dictator or Prime Minister or Scientist Supreme is. So long as we think this Central System works it will never change- we’ll just keep putting a new man or woman in that role. We’ll think what was wrong was not Central Government but that the wrong Boss was installed or the wrong logo and we’ll keep shuffling faces and personalities as if it made all the difference.
As we discover, once again, that Dr. Ashley Bloomfield should never have screwed his overwhelming arrogance to the sticking place of a role that ought never have existed we are given a big choice. Do we turn on him as a scapegoat and put another guy in the same impossible situation? Or do we finally say “no” to Statism? It will be interesting to see Labour 6.0 trying not to throw Bloomfield under the bus. As the Panicdemic fizzles out critics will come for him but he will be politically protected. Not, understand, because Labour 6.0 appreciate his hard work and loyalty but because if he is taken down they will go with him.
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1 Coronavirus: ‘Kiwi Ken Doll’ Dr Ashley Bloomfield honoured in rap video; Stuff
Image ref. Covid-19 lockdown: Creativity blooms when you can’t leave home; RNZ
Image ref. The Print Room; Facebook
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