Today academics depend on one another’s opinion

"Thus I rail against the exceedingly theoretical language problems that have made much of modern philosophy largely irrelevant to what is derisively called the “general public.” (In the past , for better or worse, those rare philosophers and thinkers who were not self-standing depended on a patron’s support . Today academics in abstract disciplines depend on one another’s opinion, without external checks, with the severe occasional pathological result of turning their pursuits into insular prowess-showing contests.)"