Not far off, more like dead on. But allowances must be made for human nature. Australian internist Barry Marshall discovered the presence of Heliobacter pylori in the gut of ulcer sufferers and found that their symptoms could be eliminated with anti-biotics in 1982. But the medical establishment, and especially gastroenterologists, did not want to hear it, as it would overnight turn the treatment of ulcer patients, one of their mainstays, over to internists with antibiotics. But most of them were not evil. They just preferred what they had been taught at medical school and what provided them with a good living. It took until 1994 for anti-biotic treatment to become the indicated treatment for ulcers in the USA.

Upton Sinclair's famous dictum, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" is less cynicism than sad observation of fact. It would be hard for a reporter in a downsizing industry to write articles exposing the self-interested manipulation of public opinion when his publisher is dependent on the capital markets for continued existence and would likely "downsize" the author of articles that would incur the wrath of the financial sector. The polite term for this phenomenon is "Market Discipline."

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."