Oh no, he's droning on again

Here goes with the kind of post that you all ignore. Would it help if I added something sarcastic about Manchester United, or referred to Betty Boo?

You all know that I'm a massive fan of Pharyngula, an American science professor who has a neat sideline in speaking up for scientific endeavour in the face of religion, quackery and media stupidity.

A couple of days ago he gave the graduation speech at Keck School of Medicine. He made some comments that teachers, students and everybody else should take seriously in a climate where being an expert is increasingly being associated with arrogance and contempt:

… the responsibility of the public intellectual is what I want to say a few words about to you. You are about to receive a diploma that gives you the potential to be one of us, too.

A public intellectual is the modern equivalent of the court jester -- the wise fool who could say anything to the king, because no one would ever take him seriously as a rival for the throne. If the concept is too medieval for you, look at 21st century America, where the best news commentary on television is offered by a couple of comedians on a small cable network. It's the same principle: people on the edge of the herd, whether it's the mass media or the general electorate, are unconstrained by the group norms and are given greater freedom to speak out and express themselves. The weirdos, by their very nature, have more latitude, and we also institutionalize the principle in ideas like academic freedom.

Did I just call you all weirdos? I'm sorry, yes I did. You're all receiving advanced degrees from USC, and that automatically makes you all a bunch of nerds. You should be proud.

You are also the lucky few, the ones with talent and discipline and the fortunate opportunity to pursue science and medicine, and you have acquired another kind of debt: you have been granted this privilege, and now you owe society repayment. We need you to make the world a better place. To quote a comic book character, with great power comes great responsibility.

Power? That diploma may not give you political power, or the ability to beat up criminals, and it may not even guarantee you a job, sorry to say, but it does represent something significant: it's intellectual capital. You will have acquired some small measure of authority and credibility with that acknowledgment of your accomplishments, and I'm here to tell you to spend it.

There's lots more, about the graduate's duty to communicate and to criticise error. Don't just become pliable work units. Become troublemakers, agitators - at work, or in the public sphere. I know it's easy for me to say this in my job (which isn't quite as cushy or secure as you may think), but we'd live in a better society if we didn't let the shysters, conmen and bullshitters set the tone in politics, the media and pretty much every other sphere of our lives. You do have the skills and intelligence to object now and then - you just need the courage. One of the few things I'm proudest of is ticking off a copper for bullying some skate kids at the railway station. It was a small thing (though scary) but it reminded me, her, and them, that we're citizens with a role to play in each others' lives.

I do wonder, sometimes, what my job is. There's a debate in my office at the moment about the nature of professionalism. We agree that it's about defending the public good - in terms of educational motives - rather than just taking your money and doing whatever our bosses say - which at the moment means dumbing down and being 'market-oriented'. The intrinsic value of education is under attack - one of our incoming deans openly rejected the idea that small subjects should be taught. Brilliant. What a philistine.

Not many people may need to speak a particular language or understand a particular culture, but they'll come in useful at some point, and surely there's something valuable about just caring about things, however 'obscure'. If more people understood Afghan culture, or about financial planning, or the sociology of MPs, perhaps this country would be in a better state.

OK, rant over. Back to pop culture. I'm listening to Modern Life Is Rubbish. It's so elegiac.