why don’t we have scientists and inventors as transcendental figures? like the intel ad?
Well, I couldn’t resist.
One of the 60’s downsides was the reduction of the role of Science, and the concept of Progress, and the values of the Enlightenment in general.
The explosion of a good, Higher Education for more people, paradoxically led to the devaluation of college degrees, as what are essentially frivolous topics, or alleged professionalism degrees proliferations (Waste of Mass Degrees - WMD), buttressed by colleges being staffed with individuals who, if not in love with Stalinism, nevertheless imbibed Marcuse, Gramsci and Said to instil in young minds only the wrongs of Western Civ, not its many and incredible benefits (try not using the crapper for a week, and that’s a 140+ year old technology!).
The Supercharged Entertainment industry propogated antiScience thrillers, and a general ethos of untrustworthy scientists. Now, there were always mad scientists and all in the 50’s (THEM, giant ants in Nevada’s nukes sites) but science was not inherently evil, contrast with how the China Syndrome essentially treated an industry as evil, along with the science behind it.
Arts, Self Expression and the creative trades became romantic and sexy. Even the hipness of 90’s geeks faded. Despite being children of technology, they and their peers, being heavily indoctrinated, have chosen to go with the conventional wisdom of fashionable malaise deriding the science of mankind as a deviation from our humanity.