Mavericks

A commenter over at Clive Davis's place makes a fascinating observation on academia:

I think we are looking at a hyper-conformist subculture.

Within the humanities, any given individuals personal success is wholly dependent on the good opinion of one's professional peers. Its not like in the sciences or business where natural or market forces can prove an iconoclast right. In the humanities, popularity is everything and those that do not conform to current fads face professionally fatal ostracism.

Combine this fear of expulsion with a culture of overweening intellectual and moral arrogance that leads them to believe that no other group has ideas or experiences of any worth whatsoever and you get a subculture of individuals who will not deviate from the herd in the least.

I had never thought of it that way before.  If you disagree with the norm, in the humanities, what options do you have?  It's very hard to be "proven right."   Even selling well doesn't help anything (or Barbara Cartland would have been an Oxford don).  All you can hope for is to win enough supporters for your perspective  that you have, if not a majority, at least some serious weight.