The Scale of the Problem

In this chapter, they discuss how the scale of the problem of understanding the relationship with the state and the role of science in society is too big for many people to comprehend. They mention an apocryphal story about indigenous people ignoring the arrival of European ships as a metaphor for the inability to confront something too immense to comprehend. They also talk about the distrust of authority and the idea that in a secular society, the state takes on the role of God or the organizing principle.