A line Peter deVries put in the mouth of one of his characters: “I’ve done quite a study of true feelings. Most of them deserve to be hidden”.

I think that expertise will be more in demand than ever before. And I think that academics will make tremendous contributions in new ways to society because there will be several structures in place that will call on academics to give expert advice. Imagine a system, let’s call it the Hypothesis Evaluation System, that will be part of the legislative process. It will determine if the underlying hypothesis for a proposed legislative act will deliver the results it promises. Academics will be asked to give their assessment, and the legislators will act accordingly.

The Athenians had such a process, and it was constantly in action.

Anyhow, the “Nervous Conditions” post, along with a post by Krugman about Kristof and along with a couple of other responses has been fascinating reading for me.

I agree that academics have created “rich, deep, complex oceans of knowledge” and we, the great unwashed have not taken advantage of that knowledge. That is our fault, not yours.

We need to tell you what we want, and we need to make it worth your while to create and interpret it. But you can’t flinch. There will be policy consequences, but if we do it right you will be protected.

But it is true that academics and the unwashed have also created vast oceans of blaming and naming and somebody has to go to work cleaning it all up. When your name is called, be ready.

The reason for outrage was the Kristoff was lying, pure and simple.