@farmerman,
I thought you might be interested in the famed Jesuit.
He's among those who spotted that the "clerkly" elite lost caste by the coming of mass literacy and has now been reduced, to stay afloat, to weaving the winds about such things as the meaning of meaning and the relativity of nothingness and can now no longer be understood by even themselves never mind the rest of us.
It struck me that such a notion might give you pause for thought regarding rendering the masses scientifically literate and reducing the scientific caste to such a state of ordinariness that even ros and yourself, to say nothing of ci., can consider yourselves to be included in it.
It's a non-starter-- the ladies won't put up with it. We have been working on distancing ladies from the scientific method for a very long time. If you don't know why what can I say?
After all, a true elite has an esoteric knowledge pantry with which to control things. Once we all share in the scientific elite's nutrient bed we will get nothing but scientifically literate people and the thought of them splitting hairs with attenuated attention towards every jot and tittle of the scientific method as they go about their daily doings is unbearable to even think of unless one feels duty bound to elaborate a little upon it for educational purposes. Not only would there be nothing else but the elite will have flatulently diffused.
It has happened with food and golf. All sorts of things. Having a 4-course meal in a dining room was posh once and thus the simple fact of having it was sufficient unto itself. There was no need for the likes of Nigella Lawson and her palette of sauces and effects to render it posh. Superior like. You know? Like wot you is. That stuff arrives as soon as we all can have 4-course meals in dining rooms. That's when the fun starts with the hair-splitting. When everybody's posh.
Just the same with the literacy of the clerks, schoolmen and scholars and the scientific literacy of the elite of science. The process is underway as you might have noticed. I keep out of pubs where the trend is developed. Especially on ******* Quiz Nite.