Rob the Banks because That is Where the Money Is

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Heresy: when the Scientific Establishment gets it completely wrong.

A story in three parts.

Part One: Barry Marshall.

Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Barry Marshall found that the real cause of gastric ulcers was not stress or spicy food, but a bacteria called Heliobacter pylori living in the lining of the stomach and intestine. When this bacteria is eradicated by an appropriate course of antibiotics, the patient is cured.

This discovery was one of the true breakthroughs of the last century. It saves approximately half a million lives each year, and eventually eliminated a multi-billion dollar drugs and surgical industry.

I now have a question for you. What do you think was the reaction to Marshall’s findings? It is a very difficult question, so think hard.

Do you think the surgical and pharmaceutical industry said “Eureka! – at last someone has found a cause and cure for this confounding and catasrophic disease that causes so much misery?”

No. I am afraid you are wrong.

Do you think they said “Yippee! Our patients will be genuinely cured. More time for Golf!”

No. Wrong again.

Ready to give up? OK. How about I give you a hint? Notice the words multi-billion dollar in the second paragraph. Yes. That’s right. Marshall was a painted as an abrasive quack and ignored for as long as possible. Because ignoring him was where the money was.

Marshall’s first mainstream paper appeared in 1983, and by 1997 Australia had only recently licensed antibiotic treatment for ulcers.

The point here is not that you have to be cynical. If we didn't have institutions, pressure groups, and companies, nothing would get done, and our country would look like Amy Winehouse's apartment. We need all these things. Even Amy Winehouse. But we also need to verify that their interests remain at least loosely aligned with the common good.

We need to more questioning of institutions that purport to protect us.

And we need to be nicer to our eccentrics, heretics, iconoclasts, and tortured artists. After all, the whole reason they see things other people have missed, thereby enriching our lives, is because they can't help but look at problems from a different angle than you or I do.

Marshall got his message across in ten years, rather than fifty was because he was a natural showman - but most people simply aren't born with that skill. They need help.

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