“Akin to and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial military posture has been the technological revolution during the recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central. It also becomes more formalized, complex and costly.
“A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by or at the direction of the federal government. Today, the solitary inventor tinkering in his shop has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.
“In the same fashion the free university – historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery – has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
“The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
“Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
“It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”
I realize that one can easily go to the internet and find the source, so I will provide the preceding paragraph with which you are most likely familiar and save you an internet search.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
Just when you thought that the times we are living in are unique, we note this from 60 years ago.
NOTHING UNIQUE....which is what I have stated all along..HISTORY REPEATS...over and over again.
The Fourth Turning is the concept and the book is available to read (ya, I typed the idea AGAIN)
The sad thing? This was prevalent even back in the 1980's when I was in college. Universities were more about getting big federal and corporate research grants than they were about educating students. Even in the business school. Professors spent more time seeking consulting deals than teaching.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Bonus points to anyone who gets this without resorting to reference material. ( I still believe in the Honor System:)
" They come from within…. They come from a peculiar type of brainy people always found in our country, who, if they add something to its culture, take much from its strength. But what have they to offer but a vague internationalism, a squalid materialism, and the promise of impossible utopias?"
