[PDF][PDF] A society without an obvious future: can elitism help? Presidential address before the 71st annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Investigation …

KL Melmon - The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1979 - Am Soc Clin Investig
KL Melmon
The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1979Am Soc Clin Investig
Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Stanford University Medical
Center, Stanford, California 94305 substantive issues such as I have mentioned? Do you
think that this aging organization, now entering its 7th decade, has the vitality to define its
status and exercise its potential influence for everyone's good? I have preliminary answers
from you on all but the last of these questions. As a new chairman, I have come to realize
thatthe incessant pressure upon a representative of a group is" to take middle grounds." To …
Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California 94305 substantive issues such as I have mentioned? Do you think that this aging organization, now entering its 7th decade, has the vitality to define its status and exercise its potential influence for everyone's good? I have preliminary answers from you on all but the last of these questions.
As a new chairman, I have come to realize thatthe incessant pressure upon a representative of a group is" to take middle grounds." To yield to this pressure is antithetical to the nature of a scientist and, I submit, damaging to the successful future ofour society. I do not believe that the ASCI as an organization has given up its interest in exploration and cancontinue to say nothing. I am concerned thatwe take stock ofwhere we are, what we want to be, and how to getthe most out ofour organization to the advantage of all who share our goals. We have first to define what the organization is and has and what it can, under the best of circumstances, expect to do with what it has. Most of us have the impression that the ASCI is generally thought ofas an elite organization. I would like to borrow from the students of elites to determine whether the character-istics of the ASCI are to any extent analogous to those of indisputable scientific elites. Are we a quaint elite, an anachronistic group, or a part of a strong strategic elite? If we are the latter, we must take seriously the fact that we are expected to serve as leaders, as guard-ians of the values of scientific research for its own sake, and as guarantors of the contributions that science can make to society. I have chosen to addressthe question," Can a society without an obvious future be helped by being elite and using elitism?" I believe so.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation