Transposition

Scholars who become politicians are usually given the comic role of having to be the good conscience of a policy.

Nietzsche wrote this in his book Human, All Too Human in the late 1870s, and to transpose to our own times: 

Entertainers and celebrities who align with politicians and their ideologies are usually given the comic role of having to be the good conscience of a policy.

Go, go, you countercultural rock stars and icons of the entertainment industry! 

Not to add, lest the implication be too absolute, that scholars need feel too left out or aggrieved - they still have their role to play, and a not insignificant one. Though it simply must be understood, and most of all by the scholars themselves, that as we stride forwards in triumph and certainty, our Noam Chomskys are now a step or two below our Bruce Springsteens.

Sometimes for the cause, even pride must be tempered by humility.