My critical comments on the Ivory Tower yesterday prompted some comments from readers and more thought from me.
Thomas Sowell picks on the problems of the mainstream academy:
our colleges and universities are content with whole departments consisting solely of people ranging from the left to the far left. In academia, "diversity" in practice too often means simply white leftists, black leftists, female leftists and Hispanic leftists... A student can spend four years at many colleges and universities and graduate with no real awareness of any other viewpoints than those on the left.College and university faculties do not simply happen to be leftist. Too often ideological questions are asked at faculty job interviews and ideological litmus tests are applied in hiring.
One reason for the prominence of conservative think tanks is that so many top scholars who are not leftists do not find a home in academia and go to work for think tanks instead.
Sowell ought to know about trading a university job for a job with a think tank. I believe he made that jump himself, winding up at the Hoover Institute for a while. The Maverick Philosopher has also commented to the fact that he left the Ivory Tower, preferring to leave its petty politics and concentrate on his true love - philosophy. Bill describes himself as a "recovering academician." Canadian university student Joel Flemming (here and here and here) also relates some first hand problems he's had. Whenever I post on this topic I always hear it from students who think I am missing out and ought to reconsider. I know it's well meant. But on second consideration I would have to be crazy to go back. I would lose my income and go into debt, for one thing, and I have a family to look after. As it stands right now, I have 100% control over what I read and what I write. My ability to speak is not on hold until I earn something called tenure. I risk becoming insular but the internet is a great place to find new ideas and new authors to examine, challenge and be challenged by. For example, I recently found a blog by a left leaning atheist that I think might be worth reading - Diachronic Agency is well written and well thought. Check out this post:
the uncharitable atheist shares the fatuous theist's understanding of the consolations of theism. From the perspective they share, a theist would draw consolation from the thought that what appear to be undeserved harms are not simply that: either (on the cruelest disjunct) the harms are in fact deserved or (less appallingly but still fatuously) the apparent harms are not really harms. The theist I'm imagining joins the atheist in viewing this understanding of theistic consolation as the product of infantile fantasy but does not view that as a strike against theism. As before, this understanding of theistic consolation is hopelessly inadequate to the needs of a theism for grown-ups.Now that is writing that I will be willing to mull over. Most university texts are not that good and surely to heaven we all know most profs aren't. Most teaching assistants can't even come close. What I can do with the internet slays the University experience. I have the best texts at my fingertips and I can converse with people the world over for a fraction of the cost. That means I can come into contact with minds that are bright but for whom the university is too far or too expensive. I have no need to have an alphabet after my name; I love what I do and I do not crave public accolades or seek a tenured prof's income. I'm not prepared to grovel for it, anyway. My opinion is not one you'll hear from a counselor but think now, just how unbiased do you think they are anyway? Ever get a flyer offering a free test to see if Bonzo's School of Piano can help your child? Do you think anyone ever takes that test and is told, 'sorry, there's nothing we can do'? There is a life outside the tower. A good life, a happy life. While there may be good things inside, it is a mistake to think it is the only place in which happiness and fulfillment are possible. Heck, you can even make money without a degree if you are cheap and entrepreneurial. I also experienced too many students who were there purely for reasons of pride and avarice, with no love for the institution or their subject. I'm not interested in debating such people. And with more and more students steered into the tower every year, I suspect their numbers are on the rise. A freelance philosopher. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? ****** More on the subject here:
if college costs $50K a year, the college-bound will cost $200K in four years (and it often takes longer). Meanwhile, the truckers will be earning, say $50K a year. At the end of four years, your trucker kids will be $400K ahead. And at the end of four years, most college kids will either be (a) going into occupations with mediocre pay, like teaching; (b) going to graduate school; or (c) going into rehab.and here:
There are a number of people (with different jobs from mine) at my workplace who have bachelor's degrees, whose jobs do not require said degrees, and who seem exceedingly incurious, non-intellectual, and who likely should not have gone to university in the first place. A certain close relative of mine has a master's degree in anthropology. Employment prospects: zero. Though she probably should have known better, she was led down that garden path by the educational establishment, who had only the continuation of the system and their jobs in mind. And all at the public trough. All this is quite expensive, both to the individual and society. Many if not most students at your average junior college, or even university, are learning things which they should have learned in primary and secondary school. I need not dilate on that theme, as it is well known and a national scandal.
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