..a thin veneer of science that stood the test of time.

I have to say, your doffing of the cap seems to betray at least four naivetes ..

(1) an apparent assumption that the reader doesn’t understand how the world works and needs a narrative refreshment

(2) an assumption that the connection between your ease with the narrative and your your own relative privilege is invisible or irrelevant

(3) that your own relative privilege could never be connected to your ready acceptance of the narrative

(4) That there is any such thing as “MRS” as opposed to “FRS”.

I know at least as many FRS who held science back as who propelled it forward. One, elected just this year, who was so much the biggest bullshitter at a meeting I used to attend that I wondered how much longer he would possibly survive in science. Little did I know. Not the first, probably not the last.

Pedigree (combined with some basic social skill) nearly always rules, camouflaged by a thin veneer of fundamentally good work.

- Shyaku