I confess I approach this post with some trepidation. Elsewhere I have lamented the passing of what used to be called the “public intellectual”; individuals both in and out of academia who helped bridge the gulf between what was going on in the academy and the interested public. Some blame their fading away on the post WW II monopoly on intellectual life built by universities, flush with GI Bill cash and other Government funds. Others cite changes in our culture that have made it less friendly to generalists, which many of these people were.

But one also has to mark the rise of the think tank as a substitute institution. These organizations sit somewhere between the university and the public, carrying on research on specific areas, mostly dealing with public policy. To some degree, they have replaced the public intellectual’s role in our discourse, and unfortunately their influence has not been positive overall.

There are a few out there that do excellent work. But many others were engineered from the ground up to support a specific political agenda, facts be damned. This is possible because Think Tanks have no regulations, no rules dictating their content. The people who run them don’t need to have college degrees or any education at all. They don’t even have to produce anything as far as I can determine. Today’s think tanks are to the intellectual what totally unrestricted capitalist business is to the economist, with similarly tainted results. Now I am a firm believer in the veracity of the marketplace of ideas, but I’m also realist enough to recognize that no truth, no matter how “self-evident” can survive unaided in the face of a well-funded, well-designed propaganda campaign.

On the other hand, there are allegedly numerous tax breaks and other fiscal advantages available to think tanks that might be of use to the struggling independent scholar or amateur scientist who is trying to support their work. The question is whether one wants to assume the shady reputation that comes with becoming part of the think tank crowd. This is something I hope to explore further in later installments.