Sociological note: These individuals are more or less isolated from other members of their communities--for good and bad reasons. In the United States especially, there is often a curious ambiguity between a desire to influence the wider populace and an emotion akin to disgust. The populace at large is easily able to respond in kind--moving from fawning admiration to distrust and suspicion. Demagogic journalistic types can stir up the masses with visions of "nutty" professors who don't really work as hard as the rest of us, or who do so-called research into subjects that are ridiculous. The Sociologist Wacquant has suggested that academics outside of the USA are not so isolated.
Much more could be said on this topic but I don't sleep at night, having the non-stop stress of being (in effect) on twenty-hour call....and having been woken too early by an employee of the USA's don't care Health System.
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