Monday, 9 December 2024

And What Exactly Are ‘The Values Of The Royal Society'..?

A leading scientist at the University of Oxford has resigned from the UK’s national academy of sciences over concerns about Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship. Prof Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology and a leading expert on children’s communication disorders, said she handed back her fellowship of the Royal Society last week.

Oh. Well, bit long in the tooth for a strop like a toddler denied a lollipop befor dinner, aren't you? 

Bishop told the Guardian her move was a gut reaction, adding she had met the president and the chief executive after indicating her decision to resign, who stressed the need to follow due process over Musk. “I just started to think, you know, the Royal Society seemed to be set up to make it very, very difficult to ever get somebody to resign or to actually get thrown out, and given all I know about Musk, it felt grubby, to be honest,” she said.

We aren't told what it is she 'knows about Musk' but what she says reveals a great deal about her...

“It just felt having him in the Royal Society seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society. And I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it.”

The values of the Royal Society? Doesn't it honour entrepreneurs and showmen then? I mean, it honoured Michael Palin, and all he does is take holidays with BBC licencepayer money.

Bishop also pointed to the Royal Society’s code of conduct, which stresses the need for fellows to treat each other with courtesy. “What I said to them was, I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk I’m afraid, so I can’t keep to the code of conduct,” she said.

Imagine being a lady of a certain age, and admitting that you have no social graces and self control? 

13 comments:

DiscoveredJoys said...

This, in a nutshell, is the problem of QUANGOs and NGOs. They are full of people who consider themselves part of the club, and resist outsiders joining or the winding up of 'their club'.

Wikipedia gives us a flashback to the fifties:
"U and non-U English usage, where "U" stands for upper class and "non-U" represents the aspiring middle and lower classes, was part of the terminology of popular discourse of social dialects (sociolects) in Britain in the 1950s. The different vocabularies can often appear quite counter-intuitive: the middle classes prefer "fancy" or fashionable words, even neologisms and often euphemisms, in attempts to make themselves sound more refined ("posher than posh"), while the upper classes in many cases stick to the same plain and traditional words that the working classes also use, as, confident in the security of their social position, they have no need to seek to display refinement.

Prof Dorothy Bishop would probably be horrified to realise she was branding Elon Musk as non-U.

Andy5759 said...

Social graces and self control? As rare as hen's teeth nowadays.

Sen.C.R.O'Blene said...

Who actually pays for this hugely secretive crowd of 'scientists'?

Are they real, or figments of some daft organisation's trust in accepting what they need to flog their products, or political ideas - like the climate scam, and all the dross associated with the Chinese flu being something else...

I hope I don't pay them, because as far as I can see, you can invent any theory, tell your MP, who will exercise the models for starting a new scam where bright young entrepreneurs see a new 'market', and exploit it to the hilt!

Umbongo said...

I suspect she won't be particularly missed by those who retain their membership of the RS: there hasn't exactly been a rush for the exit by her (ex) fellows. Sure, she's probably very clever but, evidently, not very intelligent.

Stonyground said...

Their motto is Nullus In Verbum. Meaning that you don't just take people's work for something. In scientific matters new information has to be properly verified before being taken on board. With the exception of the notion that tiny traces of CO2 in the atmosphere have a devastating effect on the climate, they seem to have swallowed that one whole without checking. I wonder what her beef with Musk is? Him standing up for free speech is my guess.

decnine said...

So, she's OK with smearing Elon, but not stupid enough to do actual defamation. I think the Royal Society is enhanced by her resignation. Thanks for going, (sinemeritus) Professor.

Anonymous said...

(Wo)Menopause causing problems, dearie? Just because she has one, doesn't mean that she has to be one, does it?

JuliaM said...

It's not a club I'd ever want to join, personally...

JuliaM said...

They really are!

JuliaM said...

If you have to ask, the answer is always 'the taxpayer'.

JuliaM said...

The two often don't travel in tandem.

JuliaM said...

Most likely!

JuliaM said...

😄