I also recommend this interview with my former colleague Tom Lessl, a professor of speech communications at the University of Georgia and expert on the rhetoric of science. “[S]cientific culture has responded to the pressures of patronage by trying to construct a priestly ethos — by suggesting that it is the singular mediator of knowledge, or at least of whatever knowledge has real value, and should therefore enjoy a commensurate authority. If it could get the public to believe this, its power would vastly increase.” What an apt description of many aspects of neoclassical economics! (HT: Acton PowerBlog)