In an article for New Yorker, “The Mistrust of Science”, Atul Gawande argues that science is a social enterprise characterized by an intricate division of cognitive labor, and that, for all its flaws, it is perhaps the most powerful collective enterprise in human history.

In a moment, in which—according to the Economist Intelligence Unit—an increased sense of personal and societal anxiety and insecurity in the face of diverse perceived risks and threats is undermining democracy, Gawande’s final remark is worth serious consideration: how we think matters (emphasis added):

Even more than what you think, how you think matters. The stakes for understanding this could not be higher than they are today, because we are not just battling for what it means to be scientists. We are battling for what it means to be citizens.