Challenges [Paperback]

This collection, based on several of Lang's Files , deals with the area where the worlds of science and academia meet those of journalism and politics: social organisation, government, and the roles that education and journalism play in shaping opinions. In discussing specific cases in which he became involved, Lang addresses general questions of standards: standards of journalism, discourse, and of science. Recurring questions concern how people process information and misinformation; inhibition of critical thinking and the role of education; how to make corrections, and how attempts at corrections are sometimes obstructed; the extent to which we submit to authority, and whether we can hold the authorities accountable; the competence of so-called experts; and the use of editorial and academic power to suppress or marginalize ideas, evidence, or data that do not fit the tenets of certain establishments. By treating case studies and providing extensive documentation, Lang challenges some individuals and establishments to reconsider the ways they exercise their official or professional responsibilities.I am very thankful to Springer-Verlag for publishing a collection of some of my non-mathematical works-I call them political works. in the broad sense of the word political. Three of these have appeared in print: - My article on the Ladd-Lipset sUIvey. which appeared in the New York Review of Books. 18 May 1978; and also in The File (Springer-Verlag. 1981). - My article on the Baltimore case. which appeared in the Jour? nal of Ethics and Behavior. February 1993. - My articles on HIV and AIDS. which appeared in the Yale Sci? entific (Fall 1994 and Winter 1995). reprinted updated in the book AIDS: Virus-or drug induced? Kluwer Academic Pub? lishers. 1996. pp. 271-307. The first item. Academia. Journalism. and Politics. is itself a book based on my Huntington file. The Background and Motiva? tion section of this sub-book can be used as a foreword for all my politicallÃj