Why did no one tell me sleeping was this good? I am sleeping long and deep and having incredible and vivid dreams, which often end up featuring the sea, possibly because of the never ceasing crashing waves just yards from my bed. And best of all is that there is nothing to do when I get up. Or rather nothing that I have to do. If they dig up this Grenadian beach then I think they will find all my stress and tension slowly sinking down into the sand. I imagine it will be all black and gooey and sticky, so best leave it there. Although it might be an ecological disaster just waiting to happen. A slick of a million tourists' tension pooling beneath the earth, just ready to explode like an oily volcano over the inhabitants of this fair land.
Any road, the point is that I am feeling pretty good. And that sleeping is playing its part in that. The sea air (and maybe the pina colladas) is knocking me out and I don't think I've made it past 10pm yet.
We actually got away from the hotel very briefly this afternoon and went for a walk up to the main road. It had been easy to forget that there was anything more to the island than our room, the beach and the restaurant, (a triangular furrow had developed between these three places, which it has to be said are not very far apart). The island seems dominated by hills and greenery and it was quite unsettling to see that stretching into the distance, so limited have my horizons been. We took a walk up a half built road which cuts into the hill behind the hotel. Everything was deserted and it felt like we were going somewhere out of bounds and we didn't encounter any other people, but got some more spectacular views. At some point I intend to do some exploring of the island, but for the moment it's all about the beach, the restaurant and my bed.
I've been getting lots of reading done. I finished "Bad Science" this morning and would recommend it to thoroughly. It's a very important book and makes some interesting and unsettling points. It's not all about debunking homeopathy - in fact, aside from being concerned about those who try to ward off malaria with sugar pills or who use it instead of standard inoculations, I think Goldacre isn't all that critical of the ridiculous practice. Obviously it's unscientific and made up and pathetic (and I love the idea of imagining a sphere of water, with the diameter of the distance from the Earth to the Sun to register that the amount of original substance remaining in a homeopathy tablet is the equivalent of one molecule out of that entire ball of water) and water does not have a memory, but Goldacre seems open to the idea that it might serve a purpose.
It is general human stupidity and misunderstanding of science that he is more concerned with and he cleverly demonstrates that if you've ever bought expensive moisturiser or head ache medicine in capsule form or IQ fish tablets (I have done all these things), then in many ways you are as feckless and gullible and unscientific as anyone who is into homeopathy or crystal necklaces. He is just as damning of the big drug companies as the charlatans selling you snake oil and food supplements that you really don't need and which don't do anything.
It is quite shocking to realise how little scientific process goes into so many aspects of the drugs market and how we all so susceptible to gimmicks and marketing, when the actual key to good health lies not in taking sugar pills or vitamin pills or in many cases even medicine, but just eating healthily and not drinking or smoking too much.
The media's complicity in spreading ignorance is probably the biggest target of the book, so even Andrew Collings might be able to enjoy it if he put aside his distrust of science. But scientific method is really the only way to sort the shit from the sugar (even if the sugar is also shit), because as humans we are too prone to be convinced of nonsense due to one bad experience or misplaced causality. He cites the excellent example of
The Cargo Cult which everyone should know about. But we all do it in our own little ways, convincing ourselves that certain actions have consequences that are, in fact, nothing to do with us.
Maybe it's good for people to believe in rubbish, maybe some comfort is given by new age rubbish, maybe the placebo effect can cure us (or maybe the disease was as much a creation of the mind as the cure in some cases). I think Goldacre acknowledges this, but ignorance can lead to some dangerous places, whilst science and medicine have changed the world in ways that would have seemed impossible two hundred years ago. It's not about science being right or intractable, it's about making sure we're not being hoodwinked by charlatans, some of whom are clearly making millions of pounds out of us (from alternative medicine, proper medicine and the media alike).
It's incredible that the government doesn't have more power to get drugs and other remedies and supplements tested properly and independently. It's amazing how much people distrust science when it has brought us so much. It's astonishing how some people would rather trust a woman who pokes around in your poo before trying to sell you a bag of seeds with her face on it (and kudos to Goldacre to standing up to this shit and pointing out the total lack of scientific fact amongst all the sciencey sounding bumph).
But much as I am going to enjoy teasing Collings with all this information, it has also made me aware of how susceptible I have been to other subtler and in some cases equally ridiculous scams. I take a vitamin pill each day, because the advertising has convinced me it's the kind of thing proper sportsmen take, but that is no proof it does me any good and though I like to think I am too sophisticated to be fooled by advertising, the testimony of sportsmen (who were paid for this testimony) has done something to convince me that I need this product. But vitamins come in food. All you have to do is eat properly. But we'd all rather give away millions of pounds a year than have to accept that the control for our diet actually remains in our own hands. And I'm not giving up pina colladas for anyone.
I also read
Alan Bennett's "The Uncommon Reader" which is beautiful, witty, clever and just about perfect. It just makes you want to read as many books as you can, even if that isn't always a positive thing to do.
