Fighting Chemophobia

Abstract

Chemicals are neither good nor bad per se. The effect of a chemical on society instead depends on how the chemical is used and in what amount. Online sources that spread chemical conspiracy stories and the advertising that so often accompanies it play the role of the mentor in Vogler's eight Hero's Journey archetypes. In doing so, they equip the reader to take the information (the “talisman” of sorts) and use it to play the role of the hero against an explicitly stated shadow (or “enemy”), which is usually a major chemical company, government or agribusiness. Existing stories in books and films do not lack scientist characters. However, they tend to portray scientist characters as heroes or shadows (“good guys” or “bad guys”) instead of the mentor roles that they play in real life. If more books and films start to show scientists, particularly chemists, as fully developed mentor characters in Vogler's eight archetypes, then readers and viewers may become more accustomed to seeing real-life scientists as mentors instead of developing partisan opinions of scientific findings based on their political persuasion.