{Cleverness and Scholarship}[1st August 1989]

[Redbook6:178-179][19890801:1531]{Cleverness and Scholarship}[1st August 1989]

.1531

I’ve often (I think) seen surprise expressed at the way crazy cults attract educated people,* eg professionals and academics. But there is no puzzle here. To climb relatively high up the educational and academic ladder, one needs to be above all a good learner: that is, able to accept given facts and theories without question, or at least without much question: without too much question. That is exactly what is required of the disciple of a Krazy Kult.

**Your true scholar, if I may be permitted the expression, is not so much clever as obstinate: enough to be cautious, if not suspicious, about new ideas. I have an impression that most modern academics, in the Humanities at least, defend and attack positions rather than ideas; but I cannot substantiate that impression.

*(eg T[imes] L[iterary] S[upplement] 8/7/89-3/8/89, p819)

**{(ref earlier Vol [[Redbook4:120-121][19871007:2330b]{Learning [continued]}[7th October 1987], probably])}

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