(V):

We forget certain things about modern science. First, some scientists have cared and that is why things like global warming and damage to the ozone layer were discovered. A number of scientists and engineers were cynical and worked to develop weapons of different types (nuclear, biological, chemical, war planes, rockets, etc.) The vast majority of scientists were too selfish to care and so they did nothing and just let things happens without taking a stance. To me failure to take a stand is as bad as participating in the wrongdoing. Passing the balme to others and failing to do anything just showed many scientists to be cynical and uncaring.

Much of the impetus behind modern warfare came from anticommunism and nazism as solutions to the growing "threat of communism". Nuclear reasearch, rocket design, chemical and biolgical weapons were researched by Nazi scientists after WW II. Most of those scientists were pardoned for war crimes and ended up moving to the US after the war. The justification was that the Communists were a threat to freedom and democracy and Nazi and Fascists were better allies than Communists were. Western governments have failed to own up to this truth mostly out of embarrassment.

Communists themselves willingly participated in the "weapons race" and the "space race". Their excuse being that an aggressive capitalist front was threating the "people's revolution."

In the end we have the usual combination of greedy politicians and businessmen using ideological excuses to pursue a destructive course. Most scientists (along with everyone else) should have taken a stand, but they were either too cynical, too selfish or too ignorant to care. It just goes to show that knowing a lot of science might make you very smart, but it does not make you a better human being.