Success Quote by Michael Pollan

Perfect objectivity is the kind of virtue people invoke when they want to end an argument. Pollan punctures that fantasy with a simple pivot: we may never escape our vantage point, but we can still be held to standards. The line works because it concedes what every reader already suspects - that perception is crowded with bias, incentives, culture, mood - then refuses the lazy endpoint of relativism.

“Objectivity” here is framed as an unrealistic goal not because truth doesn’t matter, but because human beings are not measuring instruments. Pollan’s subtext is a rebuke to institutions (newsrooms, academia, food companies, policymakers) that hide behind the costume of neutrality while making deeply value-laden choices: what to study, what to fund, whose testimony counts, which risks are “acceptable.” By calling objectivity a mirage, he’s not inviting people to pick their own facts; he’s demanding they show their work.

“Fairness,” by contrast, is actionable. It implies humility, disclosure, and proportionality: represent opposing arguments accurately, interrogate your own incentives, don’t stack the deck with selective evidence. Fairness is moral rather than metaphysical. You can’t prove you’re objective; you can demonstrate fair process.

Context matters: Pollan built a career translating contested terrain - industrial agriculture, nutrition science, corporate influence - where claims of objectivity are routinely weaponized. In those arenas, “be objective” often means “don’t take sides,” which conveniently preserves the status quo. Pollan’s distinction tells readers that taking a side isn’t the sin. Taking a side without rigor is.