I am comfortable with doubt and am constitutionally resistant to moral certainty, herd mentality and dogma. I am disturbed on a fundamental level by the self-serving, toddler politics of some of my counterparts – I do not believe that silence is violence, complicity, or a lack of courage, but rather that silence is often the preferred option when... See more

This dynamic explains a puzzle about intellectual discourse: why do some thinkers resort to esoteric or Straussian writing - deliberately obscuring their ideas from public view?

The answer becomes clear through this framework. Academic seminars, private discussions, and carefully-gated intellectual spaces allow more tolerance for idea exploration... See more