Walt worries about the “cult of irrelevance” in universities.

Stephen Walt: I do occasionally worry about the academic world, or at least parts of the academic world being really mired in what some friends of mine and I tend to call the “cult of irrelevance” – this idea of wanting to work on topics that are of great interest to you, and three of your friends, and two people at another university. And I think this is an abdication of our responsibility as intellectuals. We should be grappling with really big questions as much as we can, and questions that are of great importance. That’s why society allows us to have these very privileged positions as intellectuals, or college professors or whatever. And the way we should be paying society back is by using that to try and make the human condition better. Now we’re not all going to agree, but that’s okay because we’re more likely to collectively reach a wise position if we all think hard and then argue about it, and do so in public whenever possible.

Recorded on: 10/8/07