Giordano Bruno said it best :
"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
In Giordano's time the question that troubled scientists was the very nature of space : was it the Ptolemy version, or the Copernican version? Most believed in the Bible's version of the solar system and the rest of cosmos - the earth as the center of everything - even the sun, orbiting it. Copernicus suggested a new model, the one we know is true now.
I mention his observation because common wisdom is rarely wisdom.
Many are impressed with scholars and their diplomas - if an expert says something it must be true, because he/she is an expert, yet the experts have been wrong many times, as they were in Giordano's time. He went against the grain of his times. He believed in an infinite universe full of light, planets and life forms. He belongs more to us then he ever belonged to his own people and times. Today , he would be a really great Science Fiction writer/scientist/ mystic. I truly wish the dear, good man could have lived in times when his gifts and obvious wisdom would have given him a long life instead of a short, painful life.
I will say it simply : Smart does not always mean right. Wisdom is not learned in a book.
