> How will you assess if people are trying to manipulate your scientific ignorance?

• Ponzi schemes (various organizations operate in all over the world, and in Cyprus, manipulating part of the young generation who didn’t have the chance to learn how to think).

• Mass-marketing fraud (organizations manipulating the limitations of human beings).

• People calling themselves “skilled and qualified” in their field, however within a decade, such people ruined our economy (since people have so much trust in the so called skilled).

• People given authority, using the media to spread misinformation.

• Seminars where you blindly giving an applause to people who are not even transparent, having no qualifications, no proof of scientific knowledge and no validity (mind games all around and manipulation).

We live our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. Technology has forever changed the world we live in. We live in a democracy where our standard of living depends on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

The ability to respond on technological means such as computers, tablets, maps, tables and graphs seems to be problematic for an increasing number of citizens and especially the old generation. Adults need a higher level of literacy to function well. Society has become more complex and harder to understand for adults. Remember that most adults are parents.

People find difficulties in understanding economic, financial news and pages, they think they are complex subjects… However, when they look at sports statistics they seem to understand them. Just observe how many people seem to know how to read those sport statistics and try to convince you that they have an understanding. However, understanding science, economics or the power of credit is no more difficult than understanding sports statistics.

If adults have no background of how an economy works, thus failing to understand how the world works, then they fail to educate and help the young generation. It is the young generation who will take care of you in times of crisis. It is the young generation who will be a doctor, a nurse, a politician, a specialized individual granting you a loan and take the responsibility of explaining to you the risks of credit.

Science is a way of thinking. This thinking allows as to ask questions instead of blindly accept things as they are presented to us. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, those in authority, those who think that have power over us, even our own parents then we are open for manipulation to the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes along spreading words that people want to hear, mostly out of fear.

The educational system, unfortunately, fails to teach people the scientific method, the best tool we have to today for discovering the truth. This failure has been identified in many countries and I am surprised that only a few people take initiative to do something about it. People and up growing without questioning anything. They are followers without proper knowledge, without skills and end up growing with a certain level of confusion regarding what is true and what is not, finding hard to tell the difference between “knowing” and “believing”.

Economics is the most important social science. It studies how societies, governments, businesses, households, and individuals allocate their scarce resources. The study of economics can provide valuable knowledge for making decisions in everyday life.