Maybe Academics Need To Get Out More Often

I've been pondering the idea that there is such a thing as "peak knowledge." That is, for some topics, there comes a point where there's nothing left to know or discuss and academic papers subsequent to that point are repetitive or silly. In support of this concept is Jeet Heer, a senior editor at the New Republic who had this amazing tweet.

@wiggumpi I can't debate someone who thinks 19th century Irish are white because there's a formidable body of scholarship to the contrary

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 21, 2015

Where do you go from this point? I've got this image in my mind of a group of diversity academics on an ice floe, floating out to sea, arguing finer and finer points of racial theory, creating their "formidable body of knowledge" and losing all touch with normal people back on land until they reach this point - where redheads with alabaster skin aren't "white" any more.

Maybe there's a simpler solution to help these strange people re-integrate into the larger culture and get away from their bizarre, university coffee shop theology.

Academics need to pledge to play outside for 60 minutes a day in order to prevent the madness you read above.