Prescription for statism

spiked-health | debate | chemicalreactions | A question of fear, not chemistry:
"But the real driver behind our growing insecurities has more to do with the political disconnection that now dominates contemporary life. As ordinary people no longer form part of active networks as they did in the past, so their tolerance and trust in all forms of authority, whether political, corporate or scientific, has waned. Subjective impressions of reality go unmoderated and grow into all-consuming worldviews not open to reasoned interrogation.
"This process has been facilitated by the political, corporate and scientific elites who, lacking any vision or direction of their own, have willingly repackaged themselves as societal risk-managers. Sensing their growing isolation from those they depend upon for authority, leaders now offer to protect us from our fears. An alienated and fearful public is the flipside of an isolated and purposeless elite.
"Accordingly, the specifics of any particular issue are only a small part of what shapes the debate. Campaigners' complaints about minute traces of persistent chemicals found inside their bodies are driven more by their sense of alienation from the decision-making process than by any real grasp of chemistry. They extrapolate from experiments upon rodents, which not only have different metabolisms, but which are also subjected to huge doses of chemicals for protracted periods of time, precisely to see the worst that might happen."

A remarkably sensible critique of the "precautionary principle" and the danger it represents. I disagree about motivations, however. Durodie is correct as far as he goes, but I firmly believe that at the higher levels of the hysteria industry is a cold blooded calculation that this is, for the reasons Durodie sets forth, an excellent way to stampede the great unwashed to demand more control over their lives by a state bureaucracy in thrall to the elites.