Pretty much everyone in the US pharma/biotech industry has the day off today, added on for the Fourth of July. So here's one of my traditional posts for this holiday, never more true than now:
This, at least, I have observed in forty-five years: that there are men who search for it [truth], whatever it is, wherever it may lie, patiently, honestly, with due humility, and that there are other men who battle endlessly to put it down, even though they don't know what it is. To the first class belong the scientists, the experimenters, the men of curiosity. To the second belong politicians, bishops, professors, mullahs, tin pot messiahs, frauds and exploiters of all sorts - in brief, the men of authority. . .All I find there is a vast enmity to the free functioning of the spirit of man. There may be, for all I know, some truth there, but it is truth made into whips, rolled into bitter pills. . .
I find myself out of sympathy with such men. I shall keep on challenging them until the last galoot's ashore.
- H. L. Mencken, "Off the Grand Banks", 1925
1. Sili on July 5, 2010 6:19 AM writes...
Hear! Hear!
Permalink to Comment2. Eric Suh on July 5, 2010 9:01 AM writes...
I did it amusing that the latter category includes "professors."
Permalink to Comment3. Anonymous on July 5, 2010 12:25 PM writes...
Yeah, I don't know that I like my (hopefully) future career being lumped in with frauds and exploiters.
Permalink to Comment4. anon on July 5, 2010 1:34 PM writes...
Remember the context! The role of the typical professors was much different in 1925 than it is today
Permalink to Comment5. milkshake on July 5, 2010 7:49 PM writes...
the role of the typical professors was not that different in 1925, in the so called humanities...
Permalink to Comment6. eugene on July 6, 2010 5:41 PM writes...
Good government is the one most essential thing that enables society to work and scientists to 'search for truth'. Without politicians who ultimately try to do the best and the police and tax laws that punish the cheaters, the scientific enterprise would not be possible. True, our social reality was not as developed in 1925 as it is today, but dismissing all leaders as opportunist sycophants is not the best idea. People of authority can create either a USA or a Liberia, so perhaps it might be best to encourage some bright scientists to join their ranks.
I suggest that Mencken should read the popular sociological and economic research of Ernst Fehr on this topic. I'm sure they have the internets where-ever he is...
http://www.iew.uzh.ch/institute/people/fehr/publications.html
It is more important for society to have good people who care about social fairness and scientific advancement placed in positions of governance (or at the head of a large company), than as researcher plebs.
Permalink to Comment7. pilates exercise classes on December 16, 2011 10:45 PM writes...
which used the station's offices in the Docklands as a set. Other features were the weather,
Permalink to Comment8. Vincent Ambrister on March 1, 2012 2:48 PM writes...
I was curious if you ever considered changing the layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
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