I saw this book on my shelf, opened to a page, and found this–
But that is the sort of thing we can expect from the Abstract Owl, the dried-up Western descendant of the Confucianist Dedicated Scholar, who, unlike his Noble but rather unimaginative ancestor, thinks he has some sort of monopoly on—-
“What’s that?” Pooh interrupted.
“What’s what?” I asked.
“What you just said—the Confusionist, Desiccated Scholar.”
“Well, let’s see. The Confusionist, Desiccated Scholar is one who studies Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge, and who keeps what he learns to himself or to his small group, writing pompous and pretentious papers that no one else can understand, rather than working for the enlightenment of others. How’s that?”
“Much better,” said Pooh.
–Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
Title above is line 2 from W. B. Yeats’s poem, “The Scholars”
