[marcus_holmes]

Except that individuals do have a lot of power in academia. Gross's papers will be published because he is who he is. The papers of the unknown kid who comes up with a better explanation will not get published because they disagree with the establishment, even though the establishment know they're probably wrong.

I'm not involved, but it seems to me a more intellectually honest approach would be to start actively helping the unknown kids with weird but plausible explanations get some attention.

I'd have more respect for academia if it could collectively say "OK, super-symmetry didn't pan out. Who's got a better idea?" and start looking at the weird ideas. One of those weird ideas is going to be the next orthodoxy.