~Cultural Revenge

    Excerpt from:  Advice to a Young Scientist, P.B. Medawar h&r c.1979
    author preface includes; young equals old, him equals her.

    Chapter 6:  ~Aspects of Scientific Life and Manners

    p.29

    ~Cultural Revenge.   A scientist who has been culturally snubbed or
    feels himself otherwise at a disadvantage may sometimes solace himself
    by a sour withdrawel from the world of the humanities and the fine arts.

    An alternative medication for bruised psyches is to become a Knowall;
    one's audience is thenceforward bedazzled by fashionable talk of
    scenarios, paradigms, G:odel's theorem, the import of Chomsky's
    linguistics and the extent of Rosicrucian influences on the fine arts.

    A savage revenge indeed, but one that will make a scientist's former
    companions flee in disorder on his arrival.  No form of words is more
    characteristic of the Knowall than the following:

               "Of course, there is really no such thing as ~x;
                what most people call ~x is really ~y."

    In this context, ~x can be almost anything people believe in, such as
    the Renaissance, the Romantic revival or the Industrial Revolution;

    ~y is usually something declared to be stirring for the first time in
    the bosoms of the proletariat.

    Becoming a Knowall is not, however a serious occupational risk of
    scientists; the worst Knowalls I have known were both economists.

    Whichever form of revenge a scientist decides upon, whether to
    withdraw from cultural interests or to dazzle his fellow men with
    omniscience, he should certainly ask himself, "Whom am i punishing?"