There is a quote in Julien Benda's book "Treason Of The Intellectuals" which goes something approximately like "We have two options in life. We can serve justice & truth or privilege & power. The more we make compromises to those in privilege & power, the more we diminish our capacity for justice & truth. Better as an intellectual or an artist, to always be a heretic".

Benda overstood something that every age conspires to make us forget: the intellectual exists not to decorate power, but to disturb it. The moment the writer, the professor, the journalist, or the artist begins asking, "How will this affect my access? My reputation? My invitations? My grants? My career?" they have already begun the transaction that Benda called treason.

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