On the relief of when revered people criticize revered institutions
Einstein, as quoted in the The Mind-Body Problem:
“‘Princeton is a wonderful little spot, a quaint and ceremonious village of puny demigods on stilts...Here the people compose what is called ‘society’ enjoy even less freedom than their counterparts in Europe. Yet they seem unaware of this restriction, since their way of life tends to inhibit personality development from childhood’ according to Albert Einstein, in a letter to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.”
Slightly further, it also shares that:
“Einstein found most Princetonians rather green when compared with their ripened counterparts in the European hothouse: ‘Their way of life tends to inhibit personality development from childhood’”
As I read the novel The-Mind Body Problem, the narrator, a self-confessed inferior intellectual in the philosophy department married to a genius in the math department, is at Princeton, adapting to the unique community there. Had she criticized Princeton in Einstein’s words, it would sound bitter and color her character. Yet as I read Einstein’s words, I felt a sense of relief. Why?
Institutions like Princeton, Harvard, Goldman Sachs, The White House, the Papal State, you name it -- all have this mystical air around them. Not if you are a blue-blood American or member of the Papacy, of course. But when you grew up as a first-generation Indian-American with immigrant parents who left India in 1979, none of these institutions feel accessible, and none of them feel up for valid criticism. “You should be grateful” is what I reflexively think when criticism of any of these institutions come to mind. Sadly it reminds me of how some people in this country reacted to Colin Kaepernick’s protests of police brutality, suggesting people who protest failures of the USA are unpatriotic, ungrateful. To the contrary, those who criticize peacefully and with good intent merely seek progress, moving us forward.
Indeed, these very institutions are the most in-need of criticism, if for no other reason than criticism is the path to improvement, and institutions that are pillars of society are most in-need of constant improvement to advance society. Institutions that have had racist, sexist, intellectually incomplete, or socially disengaged histories needed criticism and when revered thinkers like Einstein criticize them even in the most gentle ways, it resets the institution from one that is above reproach to one that has the floodgates open to valid criticism, knocked off its pedestal, rightfully, joining every other human and institution on the never-ending journey of greater progress.