I didn’t mean to invoke the cliché of the otherwordly mathematician. Although I think it contains a small amount of truth, it’s also pretty irritating, and I’m sorry if you felt patronized.
But there’s strong evidence that the academic mathematical community is ignoring the NSA/GCHQ scandal.
For example: during the nine months after the scandal first broke, the London Mathematical Society (the UK’s national society for mathematicians) published nothing about it. Nothing, nada. No press releases, no official statements, nothing in the monthly newsletter.
Imagine if there was a major international scandal involving the largest publishing houses in the world. Wouldn’t you expect it to feature on the front page of every issue of the Society of Publishers’ Newsletter? Wouldn’t you think it was extremely odd if, month after month, it was never once mentioned?
I don’t mean to be too critical of the leaders of the London Mathematical Society, or their counterparts around the world. They’re busy academics giving selflessly of their time, and in the end they did invite me to write an opinion piece for the newsletter. But the fact that it took so long and so much pushing suggests that we, as a community, are not very engaged with this aspect of the real world.
