<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#f9f9fa">
<p> </p>
<div id="toolbar" class="toolbar-container scrolled"> </div>
<div class="container" style="--line-height: 1.6em;" dir="ltr"
lang="en-US">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://brownstone.org/articles/why-did-so-many-intellectuals-refuse-to-speak-out/">brownstone.org</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Why Did So Many Intellectuals Refuse to
Speak Out? ⋆ Brownstone Institute</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Jeffrey A. Tucker</div>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">11-13 minutes</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div id="main">
<article id="post-14138"
itemtype="https://schema.org/CreativeWork"
itemscope="itemscope">
<div itemprop="text">
<p>Think of all the institutions that have marched in
lockstep during the dramatic decline in civilization
over three years. It’s been media, Big Tech, large
corporations, academia, the medical industry,
central banks, and government at all levels. They
have all been in on the lie. They sat by and said
nothing or even cheered as governments utterly
wrecked rights and liberties that humanity has
fought for over 800 years. </p>
<p>The examples are too numerous to list but one
stands out to me. </p>
<p>For several months, New York City attempted a bold
experiment making a place for vaccinated people
only. As a result, no person who chose against the
experimental Covid shot was allowed in restaurants,
theaters, bars, libraries, or museums.
Disproportionately hit were 40 percent of black
residents who refused the vaccine due to the
community’s deep awareness of the long history of US
pharmaceuticals ties with racial eugenics. </p>
<p>For decades, US policy has banned practices with
disparate impacts on racial minorities. Then one
day, no one cared. </p>
<p>Where was the outrage? I cannot recall a single
voice of opposition appearing in any major newspaper
or mainstream venue. This went on for months! Only a
few of us were yelling about this but we barely got
any traction, despite the deep injustice being
perpetrated along strong racial lines. </p>
<p>This of course is just one example but thousands. </p>
<p>Even right now, unvaccinated Canadians are not
allowed to cross the border into the US for business
or pleasure or even to see family members a mile
away. This is ongoing. It applies to everyone in the
world except for the hundreds of thousands pouring
across the Southern border, who are not sporting
vaccine passports. </p>
<p>Congress never voted for this. It’s all due to the
CDC, which somehow still retains the power to ruin
everyone’s life and liberty despite many court
rulings that have tried to rein in this
organization’s power. </p>
<p>Where is the outrage? Where was the outrage about
school and church closings, the mandatory masking,
the wrecked businesses, the bad science, the
astonishing lies foisted on the public day after
day?</p>
<p>How the heck did this happen? Why is it still
happening? In particular, where were intellectuals?
Yes, some spoke out and were severely punished for
it as a lesson to others. </p>
<p>The authors of the <a
href="https://gbdeclaration.org/">Great Barrington
Declaration</a> have said repeatedly that their
short statement was the least innovative and
controversial statement they ever penned. It was a
plain statement of widely accepted public-health
principles applied to the current moment. But the
moment in which they dropped that bomb was one in
which widely accepted principles of public health
had been trampled and buried for the six months
before. </p>
<p>Thus did this plain statement of normal truths come
across as shocking. It wasn’t just what was being
said but that actual credentialed academic
professionals would dare to deploy their knowledge
and status in service of truth rather than regime
priorities. </p>
<p>That it was shocking at all tells you all you need
to know. </p>
<p>How to account for this? One explanation is that
most intellectuals are controlled by a secret cabal
somewhere in the world that is pulling the strings.
All people in a position of power and influence
readily complied. That explanation is easy but
unsatisfying. It is also lacking in evidence.
Whenever I look carefully at people such as Klaus
Schwab and Bill Gates, I see clowns and fools whose
wealth massively outstrips their intelligence. </p>
<p>I don’t believe they could pull it off. </p>
<p>There is a better explanation: opportunism. Another
word might be careerism. This particularly applies
to journalists and intellectuals. Their career paths
absolutely require compliance with prevailing
narratives. Any deviation could lead to potential
doom for them. The spirit of going along is the
driving force of everything they do. </p>
<h3 id="h-fungibility-of-skills">Fungibility of
Skills </h3>
<p>The word fungibility usually refers to the economic
properties of a good. Something that is fungible is
easily and equally converted from one form to
another. Something that is non-fungible is stuck as
the thing it is. A good example is a dollar bill:
highly fungible because it is so easily exchanged to
become something else. Far less fungible would be an
oriental rug. You might love it but it is not easily
sold at a price you find fair. </p>
<p>Things can move from fungible to non-fungible in
the course of a market correction. An example is
acoustic pianos. There was a time when throwing down
$15,000 for a piano was an investment. You can sell
it for nearly the same price many years later. </p>
<p>Then came lighter electronic keyboards. Then
several generations were raised without piano
skills. Finally, we all have such easy access to
music in our homes so the piano turned out to lack
in utility. Now they are mostly decorations in hotel
lobbies. </p>
<p>Incredibly, these days, until the piano is very
beautiful or rare, it’s hard even to give them away.
Try this out on your own by going to Facebook
Marketplace. You will be amazed at how many pianos
are being given away provided you are willing to pay
$500 to move the thing. </p>
<h3 id="h-the-hairstylist">The Hairstylist </h3>
<p>Professional skills can be ranked according to
their fungibility. </p>
<p>Quick story. A few months ago, I was getting a
haircut when the owner of the shop snapped at the
lady cutting my hair. She then said to me: “That’s
it. You are the last customer I will serve in this
joint. I’m quitting.”</p>
<p>Sure enough, as I packed up my things, she packed
up hers too. Then she left. Later she sent me an
email that she had taken up a position one mile down
the road. This was made possible because she has a
certification to cut hair and there are always shops
around that need a stylist. She was good to go. </p>
<p>What that means for her: she will never have to put
up with a bad boss. She can always and everywhere
say: take this job and shove it. </p>
<p>The above scene rarely plays out in a university
setting. Every professor has a title and wants to
move from assistant professor to associate professor
to full professor, hopefully gaining tenure along
the way. In order to do that, they must publish in
their profession. That means that they must get
through peer review, which is about quality control
only in some fantasy land. It is actually about who
you know and how much they like you. </p>
<p>At all times, everyone in academia must play the
game or else face career death. It is extremely hard
to move from one academic position to another. You
have to pick up and go to another town in another
state. And you have to schmooze the existing
faculty. If you develop a bad reputation as someone
who does not get along with others, you could find
yourself blackballed. </p>
<p>No one who has spent 20 years or longer to gain a
credential will take that risk. </p>
<p>For this reason, intellectuals, especially in
academia, have among the least fungible skill sets.
This is why they hardly ever step out of line. </p>
<p>The same applies to journalism. It’s a really tough
profession. You start at the local paper writing up
crime stories or obituaries, move to a regional
paper with a higher status, and so on. The path is
set for you. The goal is always the same: major
reporter on a single topic at the <em>New York
Times</em> or <em>Wall Street Journal</em>. They
will do nothing to risk getting off that trajectory
because then there is no future. </p>
<p>This means that they must go along, not because
anyone is forcing them to do so. They do it out of
self-interest. This is why you hardly ever read
difficult or unapproved truths in major media
outlets. Everyone in this industry knows that
rocking the boat is the worst possible way to
advance in your career. </p>
<p>All these people hold on to their jobs for dear
life. Their biggest fear is getting fired. Not even
a tenured professor is safe. A passive-aggressive
dean can always pile on a burdensome teaching load
or move you to a smaller office. There are ways that
colleagues and the dean can come after you. </p>
<p>This sets up a terrible reality. The people who are
responsible for shaping the public mind end up as
the most craven class of obsequious simps on the
planet earth. We want these people to be brave and
independent — we need them to be — but in practice
they are the complete opposite. </p>
<p>It’s all because their professions are
non-fungible. The same is true of medical
professionals, sadly, which is why so few objected
as their own industry was converted into an
instrument of tyranny over three years. </p>
<p>Think about people who in the last years have been
tellers of truth. Very often, they were retired.
They were independent. They had a solid source of
income from family or were wise investors. They
wrote for an independent newsletter or Substack.
They don’t have bosses or career tracts. It’s only
these people who are in a position to say what’s
true. </p>
<p>Or maybe they were one of the fortunate few to work
for an organization with a brave boss, brave board,
and solid funding sources that would not withdraw at
the slightest sign of trouble. That situation is
sadly very rare. </p>
<p>The fungibility of professions is a major indicator
of whether you can trust what the person is saying
or doing. Those who are only interested in
protecting a paycheck and a single job – clinging to
it for dear life for fear of a future of poverty and
homelessness – are compromised. That pertains to
many of what are called “white collar” jobs. This is
why you can trust your hairstylist more than a
professor at the local university. She is free to
speak her mind and he is not. </p>
<p>All of this applies to everyone in government,
obviously, but it also pertains to large
corporations, mainstream religions, and central
banks too. The bitter irony is that there doesn’t
need to be a conspiracy to destroy the world. Most
people in the position to stop it refuse to step in
simply because they put their professional and
financial interests above the moral obligation to
tell the truth. They go along to get along simply
because they have to. </p>
<p>We should not discount the possibility of genuine
confusion here as well. It’s very possible that
legions of intellectuals and journalists suddenly
developed amnesia concerning basic principles of
immunology, public health, or basic morality. Or
perhaps this was a case of <a
href="https://brownstone.org/articles/is-natural-immunity-a-case-of-lost-knowledge/">lost
knowledge</a>, as I’ve observed previously. Still,
when there is a professional interest in suddenly
forgetting about human rights, one is prompted to
look for deeper explanations. </p>
<p>Here is why in our time, as in all times, there is
a crying need for intellectual sanctuaries for those
brave souls who are willing to stand up and be
counted, risk cancellation, put their professional
careers on the line, simply to say what is true.
They need protection. They need care. And they
deserve our congratulations, for it is they who will
guide us out of this mess. </p>
<br>
</div>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</body>
</html>