They don't affect change. They don't leave a legacy. In silence and calm academia is at its worse. It is at its best when it is provocative. Academia is least inspiring when it patronizingly puffs up cushions to make people comfortable.
Academia is most inspiring when it makes people shift uncomfortably in their seats.
Academia earns least respect when it clothes the emperor. Academia earns most respect, however begrudgingly, when it sheds the emperor of his clothes. Maybe success in academia should be defined not so much as acquiring tenure as a scorn of tenure as it is presently misused and abused by those seeking it and by those granting it. Then, maybe we will dare to make mistakes and never make the mistake of not daring. Then again, I can.