It is very important and extremely apropos to the world today, in which urgent structural progress is held back by fleeting and trivial minority interests. At

It is very important and extremely apropos to the world today, in which urgent structural progress is held back by fleeting and trivial minority interests. At the heart of the matter is power. Nobody has to wait for the incumbent generation to die off because they are right, but because they are powerful. They select what's on the syllabus They get to grade your college work and fail you They get to reject or admit you to the research group They hold the grant money They review your papers The great myth of science is that it's a rarefied battle for truth. Sure, but it's also a battle between people - and real people can be small-minded, petty, vain, prejudiced, greedy, insecure, and spiteful, and they will put their personal needs ahead of truth. Science does itself a disservice because it considers itself separate and above human psychology and politics. Some of the best reforms we could make to scientific research are not around money, publishing or peer review, but around appointments. Character matters. In the longer, mature game, one good and moral scientist who is definitely half-right is worth three assholes who seem perfectly correct.