Right, I fully agree with that, but that's not what the comment I was replying to said: the parent said that society (in a nation) was stupid for not recognisin

Right, I fully agree with that, but that's not what the comment I was replying to said: the parent said that society (in a nation) was stupid for not recognising [what is to parent] the self-evident importance of the scientific specialisation of taxonomy. And sure, that is important, but equally so are thousands of other academic specialisations. The point is that a specialisation has to communicate their importance to wider society, has to educate. That isn't a new thing, or capitalism, or a creeping anti-elitism, or productisation of universities, or whatever. It's just something that has to be done. Calling people idiots because they don't pay attention to a specific specialisation among thousands -- what is gained from that? It feels good to do that, but it doesn't help, it doesn't change people's bearing. It may be that people are just really, really thick! We'll just say that instead of communicating the importance of something! And I get that ignorance may be societally self destructive. That there are cultural/economic/societal systems that actively suppress communication