The Age of the Partial Outsider

True "outsiders" are the people who write physics papers about how Buckminister Fuller's diabolical geometry predicts the ratio of the masses of the electron to the proton (who cares? the proton is not an elementary particle) or the the inventor of this machine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman%27s_energy_machine

which I had on my test bench in my senior year at New Mexico Tech and which caused a great lab technician at my school to go insane. Insider/Outsiders are people like Paul Ginsparg (who busted into and disrupted the publishing industry but waged war against the first true outsider) and his rival Peter Woit (who blogs instead of spamming Physical Review Letters.)

Myself I am a low level Insider/Outsider in that I am a computer programmer trained as a physicist working in the social sciences department. I was an activist in the Green Party after the Nader campaign and spent a few years twisting friend's arms to run for public office. A political scientist I know wrote a paper that proved one of my opinions was wrong and he actually is an alderman but I'm better read than he is on more obscure historical politicians and laws because I am a compulsive reader.

The man I bought my farm from was a lowly lab technician but when I hopped on a bus that departed to the state forest from the plant science building to the state forest, he was the one that the professors turned to when it came to identifying trees in the winter because he'd spent a lot more time outdoors.

Equating the Dark Enlightenment with the original article, I see.

I wonder how long before The Art Of The Deal is required reading in 7th grade classrooms.